DeepSeek, the Chinese tech firm that has emerged as a challenger to America’s dominance in artificial intelligence (AI), is gunning for something far bigger than profits, according to a transcript of an alleged meeting between its CEO, Liang Wenfeng, and the company’s investors.

At a time when even the likes of OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and other frontier developers are under pressure to pivot towards revenue generation, the $52 billion DeepSeek sees consumer products and APIs merely as instruments to achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

Unlike AI, AGI would be a machine whose cognitive capabilities across virtually all intellectual tasks match or exceed those of humans. And, that’s the holy grail of ongoing race in technology.

Wenfeng faces the same resource constraints everyone does, but the scale of his ambition requires more. “Our company is managed through two parallel systems. One runs from the top down, while the other runs from the bottom up. The bottom-up system means everyone is free to pursue what they want to work on. Nobody tells them what to do, and there are no KPIs,” the 41-year-old founder reportedly said. KPI stands for key performance indicator and is used to measure how much of a stated goal an employee or team has achieved.

Wenfeng also revealed that the vision of the company, i.e. to achieve AGI eventually, isn’t written down, no one works overtime, and there are no pre-defined assignments. It’s an admission of the kind of freedom required for deep research, to find something new.

As advertising Guru Rory Sutherland puts it, a very small portion of what one does in marketing creates the most value. Research is just as fat-tailed as marketing, art, or venture investing.

“Research requires a relaxed environment. If people are under constant pressure, genuine research becomes impossible,” Wenfeng explained, in a pleasant break from the hustle culture promoted by founders, corporates, and investors over the last decade on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

Apparently, no one’s hanging signboards with the company’s vision either. “Vision is reflected in how you act, not what you say,” he added.

Wenfeng’s philosophy seems in sync with an increasingly Stoic Gen Z, many of whom seem to prioritise purpose over wealth or status.

A counter-narrative may highlight the pressures coming from competition and stakeholders. DeepSeek isn’t immune to either.

“Right now, there are simply too many companies in China building foundation models. There are probably only three major players in the United States, whereas China has far too many,” the CEO said. Beyond the local market, the progress of AI is, for now, closely tied to a country’s status and negotiating power in geopolitics.

Yet, the Hangzhou, China-based DeepSeek has adopted a culture that’s in sharp contrast to the increasing corporate obsession with worker efficiency, leading to a sharp rise in the use of surveillance technologies that many consider an overreach.

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