Liang Wenfeng

Spear’s Review

Liang Wenfeng has swiftly become the face of China’s AI race with the US. After building his fortune as the founder of hedge fund giant High Flyer, he channelled the proceeds into DeepSeek, which he launched in 2023.

Within just a year, DeepSeek established itself as a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, unveiling its R1 model in January 2025, which is similar in capability to ChatGPT but cheaper to operate. The move positioned Liang at the centre of China’s bid to compete in generative AI.

Wenfeng's position within the field of AI was made clear the very day R1 launched, when he was one of only nine people invited to a closed-door symposium with Chinese premier Li Qiang. 

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