| DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng tells investors the lab's strongest models stay open Notes from a roughly four-hour DeepSeek investor meeting circulated without authorization on July 23, in which founder Liang Wenfeng said the company will open-source its models including its most capable. The pledge answers the question created by DeepSeek's turn to outside capital: a month after closing its first funding round, it opened talks on a second at a $71 billion pre-money valuation and began preparing a mainland IPO, targeting a 2027 listing. Open weights cost nothing at DeepSeek's chosen margin, Liang argued, because the company aims for a return of about six times, a 10-month payback, rather than a hundred times. He has reportedly paused the new round over the leak and told the team to reassess its information disclosure and investor communication procedures. |