Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over chasing revenues, as its billionaire founder decides not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales.
The Hangzhou-based company, led by hedge fund billionaire Liang Wenfeng, has seen a surge for its services through its free website and app, but also from paid business clients. Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, according to two people with knowledge of its development.
Interest in DeepSeek has grown since January after the release of its low-cost R1 reasoning model which has comparable performance to US and Chinese competitors but built on a much smaller budget.