DeepSeek attracts young talent from Silicon Valley to China

Young Chinese engineers are attracted by the lower cost of living in their home country. Back home, they get to live close to family and the opportunity to take on important roles early in their careers.

In January, DeepSeek shocked and awed Silicon Valley after launching groundbreaking AI models that performed on par with many chatbots, but at a fraction of the cost - Photo: FINANCIAL TIMES

Stay in Silicon Valley or go back to China?

At the end of his internship at Nvidia Corporation (USA) in 2023, Zizheng Pan, a young Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, faced an important decision: Stay in Silicon Valley with the world's leading chip designers, or return to his hometown to join DeepSeek - a little-known startup in eastern China at that time.

According to Zhiding Yu, a senior researcher at Nvidia and Pan's mentor during his internship, Pan chose DeepSeek without much hesitation.

“I am still very impressed by Zizheng Pan’s decision at that time,” Yu wrote on social media platform X last month. He sees cases like Pan’s becoming more common. “Many of our outstanding talents are from China. They don’t necessarily succeed just by working at an American company.”

Less than two years after Pan joined DeepSeek, the company became a global sensation. DeepSeek released two advanced AI models at significantly lower costs, wiping nearly $600 billion off Nvidia’s market capitalization.

Pan's choice reflects a growing trend: China's top AI talent is increasingly leaving Silicon Valley and returning home.

According to people working in the Chinese technology industry shared with the US technology site Rest of World , these talents are attracted by the lower cost of living in China, living close to family and the opportunity to take on important roles at a young age.

In addition, concerns about increasingly strict immigration policies have also made some Chinese engineers hesitant to go to the US.

In the past, China's top tech engineers often chose Silicon Valley for the high salaries and the opportunity to work with the world's most creative minds.

But now, as the domestic AI industry thrives, more and more young engineers are choosing to stay home. Giants like Alibaba, along with startups like StepFun, Minimax, and 01.AI, are offering more attractive opportunities than ever.

The Success of DeepSeek

DeepSeek has recruited many young students and interns from top Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Unlike many other AI companies in China, DeepSeek is fully funded by founder Liang Wenfeng’s hedge fund High-Flyer. DeepSeek’s young and energetic team of engineers is trying to catch up with Silicon Valley’s tech giants, despite a US ban on China’s access to advanced chips.

Professor Angela Zhang at the University of Southern California (USA), who specializes in researching technology regulations in China, commented: "DeepSeek shows the strength of China's AI talent pool, supported by a large number of talented and highly capable software engineers. I believe this advantage will help China have a strong position in the next phase of AI development."

Nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers studied in China, according to a 2023 report by MacroPolo, a Chicago-based think tank. Chinese universities, labs, and even research facilities run by American tech companies like Microsoft Research Asia, based in Beijing, have helped train a generation of talented researchers.

A prime example is Junxiao Song, one of the core people behind the latest DeepSeek R1 model. Junxiao Song studied automation at Zhejiang University before receiving his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015.

Junxiao Song (right), DeepSeek researcher - Photo: Daniel Palomar

Daniel Palomar, Song’s advisor, said that Song was persistent and good at math. When Palomar posted about Song’s work at DeepSeek on LinkedIn, another former student commented that Song was nicknamed “the grandmaster.” “I don’t understand how DeepSeek has gathered the best talent,” Palomar said.

DeepSeek has a different approach to attracting talent. According to Chinese tech site 36Kr , the company pays more than ByteDance, TikTok's parent company.

In addition, unlike many Chinese tech companies that have a culture of fierce internal competition and require employees to work themselves to exhaustion, founder Luong Van Phong (born in 1985) said in an interview in July 2024 that he lets employees find their own tasks and access computing resources freely.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/deepseek-va-cau-chuyen-tai-nang-tre-roi-thung-lung-silicon-ve-trung-quoc-20250207152041687.htm