Kai-Fu Lee, a Chinese entrepreneur, believes that only three AI models will endure a domestic upheaval brought on by the introduction of DeepSeek, which completely changed the paradigm for AI development The founder and venture capitalist of 01.AI is placing his money on ByteDance Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and DeepSeek to eventually dominate the Chinese market. The well-known computer scientist told Bloomberg Television that xAI, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic might be the four leaders in the US.
01.AI’s Shift in Strategy
Large AI platforms were the initial focus of Lee’s own company, but it recently shifted course after claiming that the pursuit of enormous, trillion-parameter models was too costly. Rather, he has guided it towards collaborations, such as those with Alibaba and DeepSeek, to develop solutions tailored to particular industries. It aims to construct what Lee referred to as the operational layer on top of DeepSeek’s foundational technology.
Cost Comparison: OpenAI vs. DeepSeek
According to Lee’s explanation in this video
“OpenAI’s operating costs of $7 billion in 2024, DeepSeek’s probably operated with 2% the operating expense,”
Lee made a comparison between that and DeepSeek, and made free available to the developers or at a far lower cost.
He stated in a post on X that venture capitalists in China and the US are shifting away from supporting pioneer approaches. Rather, they are more excited about investing in AI application firms, infrastructures and consumer and business apps. After Beijing made AI a top priority, regional governments in China are stepping up to support the field’s development.
