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ByYue Wang,
Senior Contributor.
This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of China’s Richest 2025. See the full list here.
Chinese AI firm DeepSeek rattled the world in January when it released its low-cost AI model, R1, that was developed at a fraction of the cost of incumbent rivals such as OpenAI’s GPT. As tech stocks went into a free fall, the dark horse company’s founder, 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng, was catapulted into the billionaires club. He now joins the ranks of China’s 100 richest for the first time with an $11.5 billion fortune, based largely on his stake in the privately held firm, which Forbes values at an estimated $15 billion.
