The ‘nerd with a terrible haircut that nobody took seriously’ that Deepseek created … and is now invited to the upper table of China’s political elite after humiliating US technological giants

The success of the Chinese firm Depseek has sent shock waves through the artificial intelligence industry, which attracts the world’s attention to its previously low profile CEO.

Liang Wenfeng was not one for fame or fortune, according to his colleagues, but he had always expected that he ordered the respect of the technological world dominated by the United States.

Now responsible for one of the greatest shaking in the sphere of AI, it is safe to say that the businessman has achieved exactly that.

Wenfeng, who for Chinese media accounts has just turned 40, launched its application in the United States the same day as the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Since then, the chatbot has become the most unloaded free application in the country, with its vertiginous popularity to see the value of its companies of fallen rivals and sending shock waves through Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

His success in challenging US hegemony in the sector has seen him acclaim a national hero in China, and earned him a hearing with the country’s prime minister, Li Qiang, last week.

Liang, the only Chief of IAI who attended the meeting of China’s main entrepreneurs, shared his ideas about the sector with the high officials of the country, who said Beijing “will focus on the advances in key technologies and avant -garde technologies” .

Liang said a ‘nerd’ of mathematics that he had the vision of creating human level to his colleagues before in his career of his plans, but he found skepticism.

‘When we met him, he was this very nerd guy with a terrible hairstyle talking about building a 10,000 chips cluster to train his own models. We don’t take it seriously, “said one of his commercial partners to the Financial Times.

“He could not articulate his vision apart from saying: I want to build this, and it will be a change of play.”

In the photo is Liang Wenfeng, founder of the China of the Deepseek, speaking in the symposium chaired by Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on January 20, 2025

Son of two primary school teachers, Liang grew in the port city of Zhanjiang, and was a direct student with a passion for mathematics.

He taught himself calculation outside the classes while he was in high school, and his former teacher told journalists that he always made sure to balance work and rest, as if he could learn each subject well without spending a lot of time studying “.

Having studied mathematics at the university level while he was still a young teenager, Liang went on to study information technology at the prestigious University of Zhejiang in China.

The University is based in Hangzhou, a technology center, but began its career in finance.

Only a few years after graduating, he founded the investment firm Jacobi, named for the German mathematician Carl Jacobi.

In 2015, High-Flyer began, which would become one of China’s main coverage funds and built a fortune through the use of AI and algorithms to detect patterns that would affect the prices of actions.

His team used Nvidia microchips, and it is said that he took his best people with him of the company to establish deep UNSEK in 2023.

Compared to the Depseek rival chatpt, the Chinese application produces answers that are much closer to the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party

Liang hired many young graduates from the best schools in China, saying in a recent interview that the selection criteria of his company were “passion and curiosity.”

It is said that it is deeply involved in the company’s daily functioning and promotes a free and collaborative culture, according to a former employee.

It is said that the practical CEO worked until late at night with its team, reports the Wall Street Journal, even sleeping in the office while they rush projects.

His decision to make the Deepseek code of open source was key, since he wanted to reduce the tendency of the main technological companies.

“For technologists, others continue their work give a great sense of achievement,” he said in an interview last year with 36kr. “Open source is more a culture than commercial behavior, and contributing to it gives us respect.”

Beijing has finally begun to pay attention to Deepseek in recent weeks, and experts say that although it was not initially the ‘chosen’ of the new Chinese companies of AI, their rapid ascent will see it given access to resources and remained As an example.

With Liang’s plans so that Deepseek is now worth it, Chinese state media have celebrated the company’s work to demonstrate that even with limited computer power, companies can ‘create miracles’.