Liang says China-US AI gap is compute power

2026-07-23

DeepSeek CEO Liang Says China-US AI Gap Is Compute, Not Talent

Liang Wenfeng, founder and chief executive of Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek, said the difference with U.S. AI lies in compute resources, not talent, multiple Chinese media outlets reported by the 23rd.

What He Told Investors

The briefing is believed to have been held in May. After raising about 120 billion yen from Chinese companies including Tencent Holdings and semiconductor-related state-backed funds, he outlined the company's strategy for about four hours.

Compute Limits And Growth Strategy

Compute resources refers to high-performance semiconductors such as graphics processing units (GPUs). The U.S. government restricts exports to China over security concerns.

Liang said China's compute resources amount to only one-twentieth of those in the United States and lag by one to two years in performance. He reportedly said, 'We will rewrite the story of AI in the U.S. and China. Our goal is to narrow the gap to six months, then three months, with a fraction of the compute resources.'

He also said the company would continue to open source technical information and keep prices far lower than those of U.S. AI, saying users welcome the approach and that it helps boost employees' sense of achievement and cohesion.

Outlook For China's AI Market

Liang said maximizing revenue was not the company's starting point. Raising prices could bring short-term sales gains, but that would not necessarily be advantageous in the long run, and he said, 'Moderation is a strategy.'

In China, more companies are developing models that approach the performance of U.S. AI, including Moonshot AI and Alibaba Group. Liang said there were too many, and that consolidation was inevitable. 'Two large companies and two small and midsize companies would be enough,' he said.

He also stressed that DeepSeek would not seek to build multifunction super apps like Tencent or ByteDance, and would instead focus on creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) with human-level capabilities.

DeepSeek unveiled a low-cost model in January 2025 that matched the performance of U.S. AI, making it one of China's leading AI companies. Since then, the company and Liang have not spoken to the media, including Chinese outlets, and comments from the top executive are rarely reported.

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