DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has become the world's richest AI founder after his wealth more than doubled following the Chinese startup's latest fundraising round. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Liang Wenfeng's net worth has increased to $36 billion, up from about $16.7 billion, putting him ahead of Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. According to Bloomberg, most of Liang's wealth comes from his ownership of DeepSeek, the AI startup he founded in 2023 as a spin-off from the AI division of his hedge fund, Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management. The report said Liang's large ownership stake is unusual among AI founders. Unlike many U.S. AI startups, where ownership is spread across multiple founders and investors, Liang has retained control of nearly four-fifths of DeepSeek.DeepSeek funding boosts Liang Wenfeng's fortune to $36 billionThe jump follows DeepSeek's $7.4 billion funding round in June 2026, which valued the company at $50 billion, reflecting growing investor confidence in the Chinese AI startup.DeepSeek's valuation has increased about fivefold from the $10 billion reported in April. After the latest funding round, Liang's ownership stake is estimated at around 78%, despite personally investing $3 billion in the fundraising.Bloomberg noted that the ranking only includes companies whose primary business and majority of revenue come directly from AI models. It excludes diversified technology companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, as well as firms in the AI supply chain, including semiconductor and data centre companies.DeepSeek challenges OpenAI and other US AI companiesLiang founded DeepSeek with roots in High-Flyer, the hedge fund he started with two university classmates. Before launching the AI startup, the firm invested heavily in advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), giving DeepSeek access to computing power before tighter U.S. export restrictions came into effect.DeepSeek gained global attention in early 2025 after releasing an AI model that delivered performance comparable to leading U.S. models at a much lower cost. More recently, the company unveiled its V4 AI model and highlighted its compatibility with chips made by Chinese technology giant Huawei.