Liang Wenfeng
{{Short description|Chinese businessman (born 1985)}}
{{Family name hatnote|Liang|lang=Chinese}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Liang Wenfeng
| image =
| caption =
| native_name = {{lang|zh-CN|梁文锋}}
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1985}}
| birth_place = Wuchuan, Guangdong, China
| education = Zhejiang University (BEng, MEng)
| known for = Co-founder of High-Flyer
Founder and CEO of DeepSeek
| module = {{Infobox scientist | child=yes
| field = Information engineering
| thesis_title = Study on object tracking algorithm based on low-cost PTZ camera
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year = 2010
| academic_advisors = Xiang Zhiyu ({{lang|zh-CN|项志宇}})
}}
| module2 = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes|order=st
|s=梁文锋
|t=梁文鋒
|p=Liáng Wénfēng
|w=
|j=Loeng4 Man4-fung1
}}
}}
Liang Wenfeng ({{zh|s=梁文锋|p=Liáng Wénfēng}}; born 1985) is a Chinese entrepreneur and businessman who is the co-founder of the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, as well as the founder and CEO of its artificial intelligence company DeepSeek.
Early life and education
Liang was born in 1985 in the village of Mililing (米历岭村), Tanba town (覃巴镇), Wuchuan city (吴川市), Guangdong.{{cite news |last1=Olcott |first1=Eleanor |title=Liang Wenfeng, the DeepSeek founder panicking the tech world: The hedge fund quant turned start-up leader rose from a rural Chinese village to overturn America’s AI monopoly |url=https://www.ft.com/content/b3668e7f-ab8d-473a-9358-12421382cca9 |access-date=2 February 2025 |publisher=Financial Times |date=31 January 2025}} His parents were both primary school teachers.{{Cite web | author = QQ.com Staff [Anon.] | date = 19 January 2025 | title=DeepSeek创始人梁文锋，广东人，仅靠百名中国程序员，赶超OpenAI | trans-title = Liang Wenfeng, Founder of DeepSeek, is From Guangdong. He Surpassed OpenAI With Only a Hundred Chinese Programmers |url=https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250119A02OKF00 | access-date=22 January 2025 | website= QQ.com | language=zh-CN | archive-date=22 January 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122101120/https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250119A02OKF00 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Schneider |first=Jordan |date=27 November 2024 |title=Deepseek: The Quiet Giant Leading China's AI Race |url=https://www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseek-ceo-interview-with-chinas |access-date=22 January 2025 |website=ChinaTalk |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Velazco |first=Chris |date=29 January 2025 |title=The DeepSeek app is impressively strange. Here's what the fuss is about. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/28/deepseek-ai-app-test-hands-on/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}
Graduated from Zhejiang University, Liang received a Bachelor of Engineering in electronic information engineering in 2007 and a Master of Engineering in information and communication engineering in 2010. His master's dissertation was titled "Study on object tracking algorithm based on low-cost PTZ camera" ({{Lang-zh|s=基于低成本PTZ摄像机的目标跟踪算法研究|labels=no}}).{{Cite web |author=Dong, Yuqing "Danny" |date=26 January 2025 |title=只招1%的天才，这家中国公司让硅谷难安 |trans-title=Only Recruiting 1% of Geniuses, This Chinese Company Makes Silicon Valley Uneasy |url=https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-01-26/doc-inehhkse0668392.shtml |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 January 2025 |website=finance.sina.com.cn |language=zh-CN}}
Career
= Early career (2008–2016) =
During the 2008 financial crisis, Liang formed a team with his classmates to accumulate data related to financial markets. He also led the team to explore quantitative trading using machine learning and other technologies.
After his graduation, Liang moved to a cheap flat in Chengdu, Sichuan, where he experimented with ways to apply AI to various fields. These ventures failed, until he tried applying AI to finance.
In 2013, Liang attempted to integrate artificial intelligence with quantitative trading and founded Hangzhou Yakebi Investment Management Co Ltd ({{Lang-zh|s=杭州雅克比投资管理有限公司|labels=no}}) with Xu Jin, an alumnus of Zhejiang University. In 2015, they co-founded Hangzhou Huanfang Technology Co Ltd ({{Lang-zh|s=杭州幻方科技有限公司|labels=no}}), which is today's Zhejiang Jiuzhang Asset Management Co Ltd ({{Lang-zh|s=浙江九章资产管理有限公司|labels=no}}).
= Founding High-Flyer (2016–2023) =
In February 2016, Liang and two other engineering classmates co-founded Ningbo High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) ({{Lang-zh|s=宁波幻方量化投资管理合伙企业（有限合伙）|labels=no}}).{{Cite news |date=31 May 2020 |title=Billions Going to China's Quants Takes Fight to Global Funds |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-31/billions-flowing-to-china-s-quants-takes-fight-to-global-funds |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525055515/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-31/billions-flowing-to-china-s-quants-takes-fight-to-global-funds |archive-date=25 May 2022 |access-date=22 January 2025 |work=Bloomberg News |language=en}} The team relied on mathematics and AI to make investments.
In 2019, Liang founded High-Flyer AI which was dedicated to research on AI algorithms and its basic applications.{{Cite web |last=Ottinger |first=Lily |date=9 December 2024 |title=Deepseek: From Hedge Fund to Frontier Model Maker |url=https://www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseek-from-hedge-fund-to-frontier |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228030725/https://www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseek-from-hedge-fund-to-frontier |archive-date=28 December 2024 |access-date=22 January 2025 |website=ChinaTalk |language=en}} By this time, High-Flyer had over 10 billion yuan in assets under management.
On 30 August 2019, Liang Wenfeng delivered a keynote speech entitled "The Future of Quantitative Investment in China from a Programmer's Perspective" at the Private Equity Golden Bull Award ceremony held by China Securities Journal, and sparked heated discussions. Liang stated that the criterion for determining what is quantitative or non-quantitative is whether the investment decision is made by quantitative methods or by people. Quantitative funds do not have portfolio managers making the decisions and instead are just servers. He also stated High-Flyer's mission is to improve the effectiveness of China's secondary market.
In February 2021, Gregory Zuckerman's book The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution was published. Liang wrote the preface for the Chinese edition of the book where he stated that whenever he encountered difficulties at work, he would think of Simons’ words "There must be a way to model prices". In January 2025, Zuckerman wrote in The Wall Street Journal where he acknowledged this fact and stated he has been trying to get in touch with Liang but much like Simons, Liang is very secretive and difficult to contact.{{Cite web |last=Zuckerman |first=Gregory |date=27 January 2025 |title=The Guy Behind DeepSeek Blurbed My Book in China |url=https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-guy-behind-deepseek-blurbed-my-book-in-china-ce08bd4f |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=WSJ |language=en-US}}
During 2021, Liang started buying thousands of Nvidia GPUs for his AI side project while running High-Flyer. Some industry insiders viewed it as the eccentric actions of a billionaire looking for a new hobby. Liang simply said he wanted to build something and it will be a game changer which his business partners thought was only possible from giants such as ByteDance and Alibaba Group.{{Cite news |last=Wu |first=Zijing |date=24 January 2025 |title=How Small Chinese AI Start-Up DeepSeek Shocked Silicon Valley |url=https://www.ft.com/content/747a7b11-dcba-4aa5-8d25-403f56216d7e |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=Financial Times |archive-date=25 January 2025 | url-access = subscription | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125094520/https://www.ft.com/content/747a7b11-dcba-4aa5-8d25-403f56216d7e |url-status=live }}
= Founding DeepSeek (since 2023) =
In May 2023, Liang announced High-Flyer would pursue the development of artificial general intelligence and launched DeepSeek. During that month in an interview with 36Kr, Liang stated that High-Flyer had acquired 10,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs before the US government imposed AI chip restrictions on China. That laid the foundation for DeepSeek to operate as an LLM developer. He also stated DeepSeek gets funding from High-Flyer.{{cite web |last1=Jiang |first1=Ben |last2=Perezi |first2=Bien |date=1 January 2025 |title=Meet DeepSeek: the Chinese start-up that is changing how AI models are trained |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3293050/meet-deepseek-chinese-start-changing-how-ai-models-are-trained |website=South China Morning Post |language=en |access-date=22 January 2025 |archive-date=22 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122160046/https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3293050/meet-deepseek-chinese-start-changing-how-ai-models-are-trained |url-status=live }} This was because when DeepSeek was founded, venture capital firms were reluctant in providing funding as it was unlikely that it would be able to generate an exit in a short period of time. As the goal was long-term, DeepSeek sought employees who had ability and passion rather than experience.
In July 2024, Liang was interviewed again by 36Kr. He stated that when DeepSeek-V2 was released and triggered an AI price war in China, it came as a huge surprise as the team did not expect pricing to be so sensitive. He also stated that as China's economy develops, it should gradually become a contributor instead of freeriding. What is lacking in China's innovation is not capital but a lack of confidence and knowledge on organizing talent into it. DeepSeek has not hired anyone particularly special and employees tend to be locally educated. When it comes to disruptive technologies, closed source approaches can only temporarily delay others in catching up.
On 20 January 2025, Liang was invited to the Symposium with Experts, Entrepreneurs and Representatives from the Fields of Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports ({{Lang-zh|s=专家、企业家和教科文卫体等领域代表座谈会|labels=no}}) hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing. Liang, being considered as an industry expert, was asked to provide opinions and suggestions on a draft for comments of the annual 2024 government work report.{{Cite web |author=Sina Finance Staff |date=22 January 2025 |title=量化巨头幻方创始人梁文锋参加总理座谈会并发言，他还创办了"AI界拼多多" |trans-title=Liang Wenfeng, Founder of the Quantitative Giant Huanfang, Attended the Prime Minister's Symposium and Spoke. He Also Founded the "AI Pinduoduo" |url=https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2025-01-22/doc-inefuxsi7314244.shtml |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 January 2025 |website=finance.sina.com.cn |language=zh-CN}}{{Cite web |last=Jiang |first=Ben |date=21 January 2025 |title=Beijing puts spotlight on China's new face of AI, DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3295662/beijing-meeting-puts-spotlight-chinas-new-face-ai-deepseek-founder-liang-wenfeng |access-date=22 January 2025 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en |archive-date=21 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121221843/https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3295662/beijing-meeting-puts-spotlight-chinas-new-face-ai-deepseek-founder-liang-wenfeng |url-status=live }}
Also on 20 January 2025, DeepSeek, the company Liang founded and served as the CEO, released DeepSeek-R1,{{Cite web |title=DeepSeek-R1 Release {{!}} DeepSeek API Docs |url=https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news250120 |access-date=28 January 2025 |website=api-docs.deepseek.com |language=en}} a 671-billion-parameter open-source reasoning AI model, alongside the publication of a detailed technical paper explaining its architecture and training methodology.{{Cite web |title=DeepSeek-R1/DeepSeek_R1.pdf at main · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 |url=https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1/blob/main/DeepSeek_R1.pdf |access-date=28 January 2025 |website=GitHub |language=en}} The model was built using just 2,048 Nvidia H800 GPUs at a cost of $5.6 million, showcasing a resource-efficient approach that contrasted sharply with the billion-dollar budgets of Western competitors. By 27 January, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT to become the #1 free app on the U.S. iOS App Store.{{Cite web |last= |date=27 January 2025 |title=Chinese AI DeepSeek's Assistant Tops ChatGPT on US Apple App Store |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2524765/chinese-start-up-deepseek-stuns-silicon-valley-with-cutting-edge-ai-model |access-date=28 January 2025 |website=The Express Tribune |language=en}} U.S. stocks plummeted, as more than $1 trillion was erased in market capitalization amid panic over DeepSeek.{{Cite web |last=Sor |first=Jennifer |date=28 January 2025 |title=DeepSeek tech wipeout erases more than $1 trillion in market cap as AI panic grips Wall Street |url=https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tech-stock-sell-off-deepseek-ai-chatgpt-china-nvidia-chips-2025-1 |access-date=28 January 2025 |website=Markets Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Allen |first=Gregory |date=March 7, 2025 |title=DeepSeek, Huawei, Export Controls, and the Future of the U.S.-China AI Race |url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/deepseek-huawei-export-controls-and-future-us-china-ai-race |website=Center for Strategic and International Studies}}
On 17 February 2025, Liang, along with heads of several top-level Chinese private-sector companies, was invited to the Symposium with Private-Sector Enterprises ({{Lang-zh|s=民营企业座谈会|labels=no}}) hosted by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-attends-symposium-private-enterprises-delivers-speech-2025-02-17/|title=China's Xi holds rare meet with business leaders amid US tech rivalry|newspaper=Reuters|date=2025-02-18|access-date=2025-02-18}}{{Cite web |last=媒体滚动 |date=2025-02-17 |title=任正非、马云、梁文锋等参加最高层座谈会，有何信号？ |url=https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2025-02-17/doc-inekuruf6860372.shtml |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=finance.sina.com.cn}}