DeepSeek's founder rejects investors and government money, aims to keep the 'science project ethos'
Mar 10, 2025
Key Points
- DeepSeek founder Leong Wang rejects acquisition offers and state-backed investment from Bank of China, Tencent, and Alibaba, citing concern that visible government ties would damage global adoption.
- Wang channels nearly all revenue from his collapsed $14 billion hedge fund into DeepSeek's AI research, positioning the company as science-focused rather than profit-driven.
- DeepSeek offers free models and deep off-peak discounts while Wang pursues low-interest state bank loans and partnerships with Chinese tech giants, creating tension between his independence claims and reliance on state-aligned capital.
Summary
DeepSeek founder Leong Wang is rejecting investor overtures and government-linked capital, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Chinese AI company has fielded multiple acquisition and investment pitches, including offers from the state-owned Bank of China and Chinese tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba. Wang has told associates he isn't in a hurry to accept outside money and wants to preserve what he calls a "science project ethos."
Wang is also cautious about government-linked investors, believing a visible connection to Beijing could undermine DeepSeek's global adoption. The company's chatbot ranks 20 in the App Store's productivity category, down from earlier peaks, and continues to struggle with infrastructure. To manage demand, DeepSeek offers deep discounts during off-peak hours.
Wang's background shapes this posture. He founded High-Flyer, a quantitative hedge fund, in 2015 and grew it to $14 billion in assets under management by 2021. Performance deteriorated sharply after that. Several products fell more than 10% from recent peaks by late 2021, and a flagship fund lost money in both 2022 and 2023. By mid-2024, High-Flyer began encouraging investors to redeem their stakes and largely closed itself to new capital. In mid-2023, Wang spun out DeepSeek as an independent organization and channeled almost all revenue from the quant business into AI development.
Wang has explicitly positioned DeepSeek as research-focused rather than application-driven. In a rare 2023 interview, he said: "We don't do applications. We just do research and exploration." DeepSeek's models are free to use. The company has pitched itself to several venture capital firms, including foreign ones, since late 2023. Those foreign firms declined, citing no clear path to recouping their investment. Wang plans to release a new model as early as April designed to solve complex problems, using techniques he has already published that show how to train high-performing AI on Nvidia chips degraded for Chinese export.
The central tension is unavoidable. Wang rejects investment while building with low-interest state bank loans and pursuing partnerships with state-aligned Chinese tech companies. He frames his independence as a matter of preserving research freedom and global credibility. Whether that claim holds depends on how tightly the Bank of China and Chinese government actually control the agenda.