Deep Seek's founder Liang Wenfeng, born in 1985 in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, is a visionary AI entrepreneur who transitioned from algorithmic trading to AGI development. As a Zhejiang University graduate with expertise in electronic engineering, he co-founded Hangzhou Feynman Technology (HFT) in 2015, leveraging AI to transform quantitative trading and scaling assets to ¥100 billion by 2019. Key highlights include leading the development of the ¥200M "Firefly-1" AI supercomputer and launching China's cost-effective language models DeepSeek-V2 (1% of GPT-4 costs) and V3 in 2024. In 2025, his flagship model DeepSeek-R1 gained global attention, propelling him to the Hurun Global Rich List with $45 million.
Liang's academic journey began at Zhanjiang-based schools before he excelled as a top Zhejiang University student, winning national engineering competition awards. His 2007 master’s thesis focused on computer vision algorithms. He established HFT in 2015 to merge mathematical modeling with AI, achieving breakout success through automated high-frequency strategies during volatile markets. Recognizing AI’s transformative power, Liang pivoted to autonomous systems by 2016, completing full AI-driven strategy transition by 2017.
Technical innovations marked his career turning points. The self-developed "Firefly-1" in 2019 housed 1,100 GPUs at half the cost of equivalent NVIDIA platforms while consuming 40% less energy. The upgraded "Firefly-2" in 2021, costing ¥1 billion with 10,000 NVIDIA A100 GPUs, enabled ¥100 billion asset management capabilities—ranking HFT among China’s top quant funds. These computational breakthroughs directly supported DeepSeek's creation in 2023.
Global recognition came with DeepSeek-V3’s December 2024 release, described as "Eastern AI enigma" by Silicon Valley peers. The December 2025 debut of DeepSeek-R1 positioned the model as a low-cost compe***** to OpenAI’s GPT series. Liang emphasized democratizing AI through open-sourced models while maintaining cutting-edge performance, fostering both academic collaboration and industry innovation.
Facing rapid technological evolution, Liang advocates AGI's societal impact while warning against China's passive AI adoption. His January 2025 attendance at the State Council’s expert forum affirmed regulatory endorsement. Currently active domestically, the entrepreneur rejects relocation rumors ahead of global tech summits, reinforcing focus on indigenous AI infrastructure development. As AGI competition intensifies, Liang Wenfeng exemplifies how computational finance veterans can redefine AI frontiers through strategic investment in basic research and infrastructure scalability.