DeepSeek’s CEO came out of nowhere to challenge Jensen Huang and Sam Altman. The overnight success is powered by Gen Z new hires
Jerry
DeepSeek’s sudden rise to the top of the AI food chain—and Apple’s app store, leaving rival ChatGPT in the dust—came as a surprise to many. The company’s secret sauce may be running in the opposite direction as Silicon Valley.
Its success is even more fascinating, knowing that the company is fairly new to the AI industry: In 2023, CEO Liang Wenfeng founded the business, funnelling his money into AI chips and assembling a dream-team to drive a Chinese AI product that could finally confront the likes of OpenAI. Less than two years later, DeepSeek is splashed across every tech vertical, and is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
But a part of DeepSeek’s success lies in Liang’s unorthodoxy as an AI leader. When imagining the CEO of a technology giant, stereotypes can wander to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff, or Sam Altman; The tech-nerdy type who view the “grindset” as aspirational, live by organizational hierarchies, and poach top engineers to lead their teams.
Liang’s leadership style couldn’t be further from his American rivals.
Source: FORTUNE
