DeepSeek Founder Liang Wenfeng Becomes Richest AI Model Creator

Liang Wenfeng, the founder of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, is now the world's richest AI model creator with an estimated net worth of $36 billion. This valuation, provided by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, follows a June 2026 funding round where DeepSeek raised $7.4 billion and achieved a company valuation of approximately $50 billion.

Liang personally invested $3 billion during the funding round and maintains a controlling 78% stake in the firm. This financial surge places him ahead of other industry leaders, including OpenAI's Greg Brockman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. Other financial estimates vary, with Forbes placing his net worth at $11.5 billion.

Liang previously co-founded the quantitative hedge fund Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, which manages $8 billion in assets and served as the origin for DeepSeek. He intends to use the new capital to pursue artificial general intelligence and maintain the company's commitment to releasing open-source models, stating that the lab will not chase near-term commercialisation.