DeepSeek

DeepSeek is an AI research company based in Hangzhou, China, founded in 2023 and backed by the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer. It focuses on building frontier large language models with an emphasis on efficiency and open-weight releases.

DeepSeek gained global attention in early 2025 when its V3 and R1 models matched or approached leading models at a fraction of the training and inference cost. The company continued iterating with newer model generations while maintaining open-weight distribution for many releases.

DeepSeek offers general-purpose chat, strong coding and math capabilities, and dedicated reasoning modes. Models such as the V3 series and R1 introduced efficient mixture-of-experts architectures and long context windows, with later generations extending context and output length further.

The models are accessible through a free consumer chat interface (web and mobile), an OpenAI-compatible API for developers, and open-weight downloads on platforms like Hugging Face that support self-hosting, fine-tuning, and use with tools like Ollama.

DeepSeek serves developers, startups, enterprises, and researchers seeking cost-efficient LLMs for coding, reasoning, and general tasks, as well as consumers using the free chatbot for everyday questions.

DeepSeek was originally funded by its parent hedge fund High-Flyer. In 2026 it reportedly raised its first major external round, drawing on the order of $7 billion or more at a valuation around $50 billion or higher, with reported investors including Tencent, CATL, and China's National AI Industry Investment Fund. Exact terms and the status of subsequent rounds vary by source; the consistent point is a very large first institutional raise valuing it among China's most valuable AI startups.