DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has become the richest founder of an artificial intelligence model company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bloomberg now estimates Liang’s net worth at around $36 billion, up from about $16.7 billion earlier. The increase came after the index revalued his stake in DeepSeek following the company’s latest funding round.
The jump places Liang ahead of other major AI model company founders, including Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
The ranking focuses only on founders of companies whose main business and revenue come from artificial intelligence models.
This means it does not include billionaires from larger technology groups, chip companies, cloud providers, or other AI supply-chain businesses. Under that narrower definition, Liang is now at the top.
The distinction is important because several tech and semiconductor billionaires would rank higher if the list included the wider AI industry.
Liang’s fortune increased after DeepSeek completed its first outside funding round.
The Hangzhou-based AI lab reportedly raised about $7.4 billion in June, lifting its valuation from roughly $10 billion in April to around $50 billion.
Although Liang’s ownership was diluted during the round, he still reportedly controls about 78% of the company. At DeepSeek’s new valuation, that stake accounts for most of his estimated wealth.
One of the more unusual parts of the funding round was Liang’s own contribution.
He reportedly invested around $3 billion of his own money into the round, making up nearly 40% of the total funding. The money came from profits linked to High-Flyer, the quantitative hedge fund he co-founded in 2016.
DeepSeek was spun out of High-Flyer in July 2023, giving Liang both the financial base and technical background to build the AI company without relying heavily on outside investors at the start.
DeepSeek’s structure is different from many major US AI companies.
OpenAI and Anthropic have raised large amounts of money from outside investors, leaving their founders with smaller stakes and more complex governance structures.
DeepSeek, however, had not taken outside funding until this year. Even after the new round, Liang remains the company’s dominant shareholder. That gives him much more direct control than many other AI founders at similarly valuable companies.
Liang has reportedly told investors that DeepSeek will continue focusing on artificial general intelligence rather than short-term commercialisation.
The company also plans to keep releasing open-source models, a strategy that has helped it gain global attention and compete with larger AI labs.
This approach is easier for DeepSeek to maintain because Liang still controls most of the company and outside investors have limited influence over its direction.
DeepSeek became widely known in January 2025 after releasing its R1 model.
The model attracted global attention because of its strong performance and lower reported development costs. Its release also triggered a major sell-off in US technology stocks as investors questioned whether American AI companies needed to spend as much money as previously assumed.
Since then, DeepSeek has become one of China’s most closely watched AI companies.
Liang’s wealth figure should still be treated as an estimate.
DeepSeek is a private company, and its shares are not traded publicly. Bloomberg’s calculation depends on the company’s private valuation and estimated ownership data, not on a public market price.
Different outlets have produced very different estimates for Liang’s fortune, partly because DeepSeek and High-Flyer are privately held and do not disclose detailed financial information.
For now, Bloomberg’s latest estimate shows how quickly DeepSeek’s valuation has turned Liang Wenfeng from a little-known quant founder into one of the world’s most valuable AI entrepreneurs.
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