DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has emerged as the world's richest AI model creator after his company's latest fundraising round more than doubled his personal fortune.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Liang's net worth has surged to $36 billion, up from around $16.7 billion, placing him ahead of Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman among founders of AI model companies.

Most of Liang's wealth stems from his ownership of DeepSeek. The company's valuation climbed nearly fivefold from the $10 billion reported in April, driven by strong investor demand. DeepSeek's $7.4 billion funding round in June 2026 valued the startup at $50 billion. During the round, Liang personally invested $3 billion, and despite dilution, he is estimated to retain a 78% stake in the company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Who is Liang?

Liang was born in 1985 in Zhanjiang, in China’s southern Guangdong province, where his father was an elementary school teacher. He studied electronic engineering at Zhejiang University, a prestigious college in the city of Hangzhou where he also earned a master’s degree in information and communication engineering.

Liang created DeepSeek in 2023 as an offshoot of the AI division of his hedge fund, Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, which he set up with two former university classmates. The trio had begun trading as students during the global financial crisis.

Chinese engineer Liang Wenfeng rose to prominence in the AI industry after founding DeepSeek, building on the success of his quantitative hedge fund, High-Flyer. As DeepSeek continues to make waves in the global tech industry, here's a look at the man behind the company.

He later founded High-Flyer, a quantitative hedge fund that now manages around $8 billion in assets, making it one of China's largest firms in the space. Liang has cited legendary mathematician and Renaissance Technologies founder Jim Simons as a key inspiration for his investment approach.

Recognising the potential of artificial intelligence early, Liang's team began investing heavily in computing infrastructure in 2019, building powerful systems powered by Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). That early investment laid the groundwork for the launch of DeepSeek, which has since emerged as one of the most closely watched AI startups globally.

How did Liang get so rich?

Liang Wenfeng stands out from many of his Silicon Valley counterparts for retaining an unusually large ownership stake in his company. Unlike many US AI founders, who often dilute their holdings significantly to raise capital from venture capital firms and technology giants, Liang has maintained a stake of nearly 78% in DeepSeek.

That high level of ownership has not only given him greater control over the company but has also significantly boosted his personal wealth. While leading AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic boast enormous valuations, ownership in those companies is typically spread across multiple founders, investors and institutional backers, reported Bloomberg.

With an estimated net worth of $36 billion, Liang is now China's eighth-richest person, ranking just behind Cambricon Technologies co-founder Chen Tianshi, another prominent figure in the country's AI industry.