Early Life and Education
Liang Wenfeng was born in 1985 in Wuchuan, Guangdong, China. His parents were primary school teachers. He graduated from Zhejiang University with a Bachelor of Engineering in electronic information engineering in 2007 and a Master of Engineering in information and communication engineering in 2010. His master's dissertation focused on object tracking algorithms using PTZ cameras.
Rise to Success
During the 2008 financial crisis, Liang and his classmates began experimenting with AI in quantitative trading. In 2013, he co-founded Hangzhou Yakebi Investment Management Co Ltd, attempting to integrate AI with quantitative trading. In 2015, Liang co-founded Hangzhou Huanfang Technology Co Ltd, later known as Zhejiang Jiuzhang Asset Management Co Ltd. In February 2016, Liang and two classmates co-founded Ningbo High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management Partnership. High-Flyer utilized AI to develop trading strategies, and by 2017, AI models drove nearly all of its stock positions. In May 2023, Liang announced High-Flyer would pursue the development of artificial general intelligence and launched DeepSeek. In January 2025, DeepSeek released DeepSeek-R1, a 671-billion-parameter open-source reasoning AI model.
Key Business Strategies
Liang's key business strategies include leveraging AI and mathematics in investment strategies through High-Flyer. DeepSeek focuses on developing large language models (LLMs) and prioritizes fundamental AI research. The company utilizes a cost-efficient approach in developing its models, with DeepSeek claiming its AI costs significantly less than U.S. competitors. Liang emphasizes the importance of originality and innovation in AI to reduce the gap between China and the U.S. in the industry.
Philanthropy
High-Flyer, Liang's hedge fund, and an unnamed High-Flyer employee have donated more than $80 million to Chinese charities since 2020.