DeepSeek’s ‘Tech Madman’ Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race

With his wispy frame and reserved style, Liang Wenfeng can come off as shy, nervous even, in meetings. The founder of DeepSeek—the Chinese startup that recently upended the world of artificial intelligence—is prone to faltering speech and prolonged silences. But new hires learn quickly not to mistake his quiet rumination for timidity. Once Liang processes the finer points of a discussion, he fires off precise, hard-to-answer questions about model architecture, computing costs and the other intricacies of DeepSeek’s AI systems.

Employees refer to Liang as lǎo bǎn, or “boss,” a common sign of respect for business superiors in China. What’s uncommon is just how much their lǎo bǎn empowers young researchers and even interns to take on big experimental projects, habitually stopping by their desks for updates and pushing them to consider unusual engineering paths. The more technical the conversation the better, especially if it leads to real performance gains, milestones Liang has personally shared on their internal Lark messaging channel. “He’s a true nerd,” says one former DeepSeek staffer who, like many people interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the company. “Sometimes, I felt he understood the research better than his researchers.”