The story behind DeepSeek’s breakthrough

This January, DeepSeek made an announcement that changed the artificial intelligence landscape. The Chinese start-up said that it had trained the latest in a series of competitive AI models, which appeared to be built much more cheaply than those of Silicon Valley competitors. The FT’s China technology correspondent, Eleanor Olcott, first wrote a story about the company last summer. She’s on today to discuss how DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng was able to finance and grow his company at a time when start-up funding is scarce in China, and often comes with too many strings attached.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  For further reading: Liang Wenfeng, the DeepSeek founder panicking the tech world The global AI race: is China catching up to the US?  Xi Jinping seizes DeepSeek moment to restore China tech chiefs to spotlight - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Follow Eleanor Olcott on X (@EleanorOlcott). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.  Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.