DeepSeek’s founder says his workers have no KPIs and no overtime, while Silicon Valley copies China’s 996 grind

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng rejects KPIs, overtime culture as AI lab hits $60 billion valuation

DeepSeek hit $60B in three years with 160 employees by developing competitive AI at lower training costs. The lean approach challenges the view that AI dominance requires massive compute and headcount, reshaping competitive strategy to emphasize R&D efficiency over infrastructure scale.