DeepSeek founder surpasses Anthropic, OpenAI chiefs to become wealthiest AI entrepreneur

The founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has emerged as the wealthiest entrepreneur among AI company founders after the firm raised more than 11 trillion won ($7.31 billion) in investment.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng's net worth surged following the company's latest fundraising round to $36 billion — the highest among AI model developers.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth has roughly doubled from a previous $16.7 billion, surpassing Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman.

Liang holds approximately 78 percent of DeepSeek. After the company raised $7.4 billion last month, its valuation climbed sharply to $50 billion, vaulting Liang to the top of the AI wealth rankings.

According to Reuters and Guancha, DeepSeek raised more than 50 billion yuan ($7.38 billion) in its first funding round last month, with Liang himself contributing 20 billion yuan of his own capital.

Among other investors, Chinese tech giant Tencent put in 10 billion yuan, battery manufacturer CATL contributed 5 billion yuan, and game developer NetEase invested 3 billion yuan. China's state-backed National AI Industry Investment Fund also contributed 1 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Liang founded hedge fund High-Flyer in 2016 and spun off DeepSeek in 2023 from what had been an internal AI research unit.

DeepSeek has been funded through High-Flyer's revenue, and Liang has also built up his stake by investing directly in the company.