Will Deepseek's Liang Wenfeng Surpass NVIDIA's Jensen Huang? Approaching China's Richest Spot

Valuations range from $1 billion to $150 billion

There is speculation that Liang Wenfeng, the founder of Deepseek, which has amazed the world, could become China's richest person.

Bloomberg reported on the 12th that if the valuation of Chinese AI startup Deepseek exceeds 200 trillion won, Liang Wenfeng's wealth could surpass that of NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.

According to the report, Bloomberg surveyed seven startup founders and AI experts, and the valuation of Deepseek, launched in 2023, was estimated to range from about $1 billion (approximately 1.45 trillion won) to $150 billion (approximately 217.85 trillion won).

Chanakya Ramdev, founder of Canadian telecom company Sweetfree Telecom, valued Deepseek at $150 billion, half the level of OpenAI ($300 billion), which translates to about $126 billion (approximately 182.68 trillion won) based on Liang Wenfeng's 84% stake.

Liang Wenfeng is known to hold a 1% stake in Deepseek's parent company, 'Hangzhou Deep Exploration (Deepseek) AI Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd.', while indirectly holding 84% through joint ventures and holding companies.

This surpasses the estimated wealth of NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang, which is $114 billion (165.28 trillion won).

Furthermore, he is eyeing the top spot among China's richest and standing shoulder to shoulder with leading tech heads in Asia.

On the other hand, Rudina Seseri, founder of venture capital firm Glasswing Ventures, valued Deepseek at a minimum of $1 billion, based on competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Philip Schmid, a senior AI engineer at Google DeepMind, estimated it at over $6.2 billion (approximately 9 trillion won).

Looking at the valuations of peer startups in the industry, Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees and backed by Google and Amazon, is valued at $60 billion (approximately 87 trillion won), and Mistral, founded by researchers from Google and Meta, is valued at $6 billion (approximately 8.7 trillion won).

Chinese AI company Zhipu's valuation rose to about 30 billion yuan (approximately 5.95 trillion won) after raising funds last year.

Bloomberg explained that valuations of AI startups can change rapidly in a short period.

Overnight, Deepseek has overturned many assumptions about the economics of AI development in Silicon Valley, giving hope to China's major internet companies for a 'Chinese AI Renaissance'.

Meanwhile, Chinese local media such as Jiemian News reported that it would not be easy to accurately assess Liang Wenfeng's wealth.

This is because Deepseek operates without external funding, relying on the profits of High-Flyer, the largest quant hedge fund founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2015.

High-Flyer has grown its assets under management (AUM) from 1 billion yuan (approximately 198.8 billion won) in 2016 to 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.9875 trillion won) in 2019, establishing itself as one of China's leading quant hedge funds. Its current assets under management are $8 billion (approximately 11.6 trillion won).

Jiemian News added that this maintains a high level of financial independence for Deepseek.

Yujin Hee, Hankyung.com Reporter keephee@hankyung.com