China’s AI Maverick: The Man Who Shook Silicon Valley

DeepSeek Overview

In July 2024, a young Chinese entrepreneur — whom we will soon meet — was interviewed by 36KR, a Chinese media company specializing in financial and technology news. At that time, this entrepreneur was relatively unknown, even within China.

During the same month, OpenAI, the leading American company in machine learning and large language models, experienced some of its most remarkable days. To provide context, ChatGPT — one of its flagship innovations — attracted approximately 1.7 billion visitors that month. Just think about this: 1.7 billion visitors in July alone.

Yet, amid OpenAI’s soaring market valuation, this young Chinese entrepreneur made a rather peculiar statement in his interview with 36KR. He said, “More investment does not necessarily lead to more innovation. OpenAI is not a god, nor can it always remain at the forefront.”

Days and months passed, bringing us to the present — January 2025. Last week, between January 20 and 24, the annual World Economic Forum occurred in Davos, Switzerland. This year’s focus was on the importance of innovation and cutting-edge technology. Behind closed doors, in private discussions on the sidelines of the conference, Bloomberg reported that American tech giants reached a consensus: the United States and…