DeepSeek, one of China’s most prominent AI firms, has reportedly rejected the idea of commercializing its technology, defying the norms that we have seen from Silicon Valley.
DeepSeek Has Adopted A “Navy-Seal” Like Approach To AI, Credited To Its Wealthy Founder & Passion Towards R&D
Well, AI is indeed one of the biggest technologies of this decade, and it has seen massive development over the past few years, with firms like OpenAI igniting the race. However, AI innovation has come with the exchange of high financial resources, or at least this is the narrative presented to the market. However, DeepSeek apparently aims to defy this, as, according to a report by The Financial Times, the firm has rejected VC funding and state-backed collaboration, all to focus on building up artificial intelligence to new heights.
DeepSeek’s approach to AI is somewhat different from that of its counterparts in Silicon Valley since, instead of chasing to achieve higher revenue targets, the Chinese firm is heavily invested in R&D efforts. The FT claims that DeepSeek’s founder, the billionaire Liang Wenfeng, has rejected collaborations with mainstream tech giants like Tencent and ByteDance and hasn’t even entertained investments from the government, as the company isn’t interested in scaling up for now.
They clearly are not interested in scaling up right now. It’s a rare situation where the founder is wealthy and committed enough to keep it lean in a Navy Seal-style for his pursuit of AGI.
– Chinese Investor via FT
When you look at what the West is interested in, firms like OpenAI have managed to capitalize on their early lead in AI, which has helped them raise billions over the past few years, scaling at an unprecedented rate. OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $40 billion from investors like SoftBank, showing that the firm isn’t compromising on its revenue stream, milking the best out of the AI hype. But, DeepSeek’s approach shows us that AI doesn’t require “hundreds of billions” but rather a few talented minds and a dream.
However, there’s still a downside to DeepSeek’s “non-collaborative” approach since it has provided competitors like Alibaba the opportunity to promote its AI services to the industry. Given that these firms have a more robust infrastructure compared to DeepSeek, this makes it ideal for large-scale companies to adopt their services, putting DeepSeek’s sustainability at a compromise. However, the use of DeepSeek’s models, both locally and over the internet, has seen a gigantic rise since its release, showing that the firm is here to stay for now.
The industry’s adoption of DeepSeek will grow much further once the firm releases its newer R2 and V4 models, which are expected to drop later this year. Given that they want to continue this momentum, DeepSeek will definitely require more computing resources, which will ultimately prompt them to explore revenue segments.
