DeepSeek founder's net worth hits $36B, becoming richest AI model founder

After DeepSeek closed its first funding round, founder Liang Wenfeng's personal wealth soared along with the company's valuation.

Bloomberg's Billionaires Index updated Liang's net worth from $16.7 billion to $36 billion — a jump of $19.3 billion. That puts him ahead of Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, making him the richest AI model founder in the world, according to Bloomberg.

This funding round raised over 50 billion yuan (roughly $7 billion), valuing DeepSeek at more than $50 billion. Liang himself contributed about 20 billion yuan, nearly 40% of the total, making him the largest investor as well.

The deal structure is unusual. Most investors didn't buy shares directly in DeepSeek. Instead, they put money into a limited partnership managed by Liang. Investors face a five-year lockup and typically get no voting rights. DeepSeek gets a massive cash infusion, and Liang keeps a tight grip on control.