How DeepSeek Went From Stock Trader to A.I. Star
The little-known artificial intelligence firm has emphasized research, even as it emerged as the brainchild of a hedge fund.
The little-known artificial intelligence firm has emphasized research, even as it emerged as the brainchild of a hedge fund.
Two years ago, when big-name Chinese technology companies like Baidu and Alibaba were chasing Silicon Valley’s advances in artificial intelligence with splashy announcements and new chatbots, DeepSeek took a different approach. It zeroed in on research.
The strategy paid off.
The Chinese start-up has jolted the tech world with its claim that it created a powerful A.I. model that was significantly cheaper to build than the offerings of its better-funded American rivals.
In the rivalry between China and the United States over domination of artificial intelligence, DeepSeek seemed to come out of nowhere. In fact, it has skyrocketed through China’s tech world in recent years with a path that was anything but conventional.
Its mission to pursue research mirrors that of companies like OpenAI, the Silicon Valley firm that marked an American signature over A.I. in the fall of 2022. But the similarities mostly end there.
DeepSeek’s origins are in finance, not technology for technology’s sake. Its parent company, a Chinese hedge fund called High-Flyer, began not as a laboratory devoted to safeguarding humanity from A.I. like Open AI, but as a business using A.I. to make bets in the Chinese stock market.
High-Flyer had thrived by capitalizing on a market dominated by China’s retail investors, who are known for jumping in and out of stocks impulsively. In 2021, High-Flyer found itself pressured by regulatory crackdowns in China on speculative trading, which the authorities in Beijing felt was at odds with their attempts to keep markets calm.
