Investors Want a Piece of DeepSeek. Its Founder Says Not Now.

The founder of Chinese artificial-intelligence star DeepSeek has rejected proposals to make quick money from his programs, telling prospective investors that he wants to keep the science-project ethos that brought him global renown.

- Rebecca Feng & Raffaele Huang

Overwhelmed by millions of users, DeepSeek's chatbot has frequent service hiccups, and authorities around the world are restricting its use over data-security concerns.

The U.S. is weighing measures including banning DeepSeek from government devices.

Other internet companies are using the free DeepSeek code to drive their own businesses.

Yet founder Liang Wenfeng has told associates he isn't in a hurry to get investment, fearing that outsiders would interfere in DeepSeek's decisions, people familiar with the matter said.

He is also cautious about government-linked investors, they said, because he believes the connection to Beijing could make it harder to win global adoption of DeepSeek's AI models.

Liang was invited to join a who's-who list of Chinese executives who met leader Xi Jinping on Feb. 17, and his success has prompted a gushing of patriotism in China.

The state-owned Bank of China has offered to grant a low-interest loan to the company, people familiar with the discussions said.

In recent weeks, executives from Chinese technology companies including Tencent and Alibaba have met Liang to discuss potential cooperation, said people familiar with the companies.

Those people said Liang didn't want to charge for DeepSeek's core AI models, which are currently free.

In the final week of February, the startup published techniques it used to train AI models using a downgraded chip Nvidia designed for China.

It aims to release its next reasoning model, designed for solving complex problems, as early as April, people familiar with the company said.

Rise of High-Flyer