Open reasoning model rivals the frontier — at a fraction of the cost
2025-01DeepSeek (R1)
DeepSeek-R1, an openly released RL-trained reasoning model, matched leading closed models on math and coding — triggering a market reckoning over AI capex.
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DeepSeek
Profile
Chinese open-weight model developer; drew attention for reaching frontier-class performance with far less compute.
Editorial profile — compiled by us from public sources.
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Hangzhou, China
Current standings
Standings and milestones are always verified by us against primary sources, regardless of who manages the profile.
Roadmap & milestones
First frontier model shipped on domestic Chinese silicon
2026-04DeepSeek / Huawei
DeepSeek's 1.6T-parameter V4 runs on Huawei Ascend (950PR), and a Huawei-led team completed full-parameter post-training on ~1,000 Ascend 910Cs — a compute-sovereignty landmark. Pre-training hardware remains undisclosed, so "trained without Nvidia" is NOT established.
DeepSeek's first raise — ~$7.4B at up to $59B
~ 2026-06DeepSeek / Liang Wenfeng
DeepSeek — until now self-funded through founder Liang Wenfeng's hedge fund High-Flyer — moved to raise ~$7.4B in its first external round at a valuation of up to $59B, which would make it China's most valuable AI startup. Fewer than 10 investors; Liang is putting in ~40% himself (keeping control), with Tencent and CATL among the backers.
