First Observation丨Resumes of several core members of DeepSeek revealed, the return of Chinese AI talents is unstoppable

Recently, the technology media Rest of the World dug up the resumes of several core talents in the DeepSeek team. They received undergraduate education in China, studied abroad, and then returned to China's AI industry. This is the common experience of these talents.

Key talents in the DeepSeek team, such as Pan Zizheng and Junxiao Song, all have overseas backgrounds. Pan Zizheng once interned at NVIDIA and got a full-time job offer, but he chose to join the then unknown DeepSeek without hesitation and became a core contributor to DeepSeek-VL2, DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-R1.

Junxiao Song graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. After joining DeepSeek, he proposed a novel reinforcement learning algorithm GRPO, which has been applied to the training of multiple models including DeepSeek-R1. He also played an important role in DeepSeek's efficient training and model distillation.

Junxiao Song’s mentor lamented, “Somehow, DeepSeek has attracted the best and brightest talents.”

DeepSeek relies on its unique corporate culture to make its employees passionate about the work they do. Founder Liang Wenfeng revealed in an interview that unlike many Chinese technology companies, DeepSeek does not encourage internal competition and overtime, and gives employees great freedom to choose their own tasks and use computing power.

Angela Zhang, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies Chinese technology regulations, said: "DeepSeek highlights the strength of China's AI talent pool, which is supported by a large number of highly capable and skilled software engineers. I believe this talent advantage will put China in a strong position in the next stage of AI development."

DeepSeek talents have a composite background at home and abroad

You can succeed without working in the US

In 2023, at the end of his internship at NVIDIA, Pan Zizheng was faced with a critical decision: should he stay in Silicon Valley and work with the world’s top chip designers, or return to China to join DeepSeek, a then-unknown Hangzhou startup?

Zhiding Yu, a senior research scientist at Nvidia and Pan Zizheng's mentor during his internship, recalled on the X platform that Pan Zizheng chose DeepSeek without hesitation, which left a deep impression on him. Yu further wrote in a tweet that cases like Pan Zizheng are becoming more and more common, "We have many outstanding talents in China, and they don't have to work in American companies to succeed."

▲Zhiding Yu posted a post recalling his encounter with Pan Zizheng (Source: X Platform)

Less than two years after Pan Zizheng joined DeepSeek, the company became famous for releasing two advanced and extremely low-cost AI models. This news caused Nvidia's market value to evaporate by nearly $600 billion.

Pan's choice reflects a growing trend among China's top AI talent: They are turning down job offers in Silicon Valley to join China's AI industry.

In an interview with Rest of World, some people in the domestic technology industry believe that working and living in China is cheaper and closer to family. In addition, there are opportunities to take on important positions early in their careers. DeepSeek's team includes many young graduates and interns from top Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University.

DeepSeek is a special case in China’s AI industry because it is fully funded by founder Liang Wenfeng’s trading firm High-Flyer. Despite the US ban on China’s access to advanced chips, the young, enthusiastic tech workers behind DeepSeek are still trying to catch up with Silicon Valley’s tech giants.

According to the 2023 Global Artificial Intelligence Talent Report released by Chicago think tank MacroPolo, nearly half of the world's top artificial intelligence researchers completed their undergraduate studies in China. Chinese universities, state-backed laboratories, and research institutes of American technology giants in China (such as Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing) have helped train a large number of local researchers .

For example, Junxiao Song, a core contributor to DeepSeek’s latest R1 model, studied automation at Zhejiang University and subsequently received a Ph.D. in electronic and computer engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. His doctoral advisor Daniel Palomar told Rest of World that Junxiao Song was persistent and “very mathematically oriented.”

▲Photo of Daniel Palomar and Junxiao Song (Source: LinkedIn)

When Palomar posted on LinkedIn about Junxiao Song's achievements at DeepSeek, another former student commented that Junxiao Song had been called a "master." Palomar said: "Somehow, DeepSeek attracts the best and brightest."

▲Junxiao Song’s nickname in the laboratory is “Master” (Source: LinkedIn)

High salary, freedom, no horse racing

DeepSeek uses hard power to solve the shortage of computing power

Many American technology companies hire Chinese interns to work on AI development. These interns either work remotely or in Silicon Valley offices. A Chinese AI researcher working at an American company said: "Chinese students are very solid in their work."

But when companies offer these interns full-time job opportunities, many choose to return to China, and many Chinese students are not that interested in working full-time in the U.S. Concerns about anti-immigration policies have also prevented some Chinese engineers from moving to the U.S. in recent years.

Early Chinese top technology talents preferred to work in Silicon Valley because of higher salaries and the opportunity to work with the world's top innovators, but more and more young AI engineers choose to stay in China. With the development of China's AI industry, they also have more opportunities to join giant companies or a large number of star startups.

DeepSeek's way of attracting talent is very unique. According to a recent report by 36Kr, DeepSeek pays even higher salaries than ByteDance. Unlike many Chinese technology companies, DeepSeek does not encourage internal competition or let engineers work long hours. Liang Wenfeng said in an interview with Undercurrent in July 2024 that he allows employees to freely choose tasks and use computing resources freely.

Liang Wenfeng believes that DeepSeek is solving the most difficult problems, so they are attractive to top talents.

In the same interview, Liang said open-source research gives employees a greater sense of pride and enhances the company’s reputation. In the past few weeks, some DeepSeek researchers have gained tens of thousands of followers on the X platform, where they discuss their research methods and share their excitement.

When DeepSeek-R1 topped the Large Model Arena (with style control turned on), DeepSeek employee Deli Chan wrote: "Incredible results, it feels like a dream - our R1 model is now ranked first in the world (with style control turned on). I am excited beyond words, I just know that we have been working hard to make open source general artificial intelligence a reality for everyone.

When DeepSeek topped the App Store, he exclaimed on the X platform: "This moment is absolutely extraordinary for me."

Yu Zhou, a Vassar College professor who studies the evolution of China’s high-tech industry, told Rest of World that the enthusiasm of DeepSeek’s young researchers reminded her of the first wave of internet startups in Beijing in the early 2000s, when graduates from China’s top universities were inspired by companies like Google and Microsoft and ended up creating a tech industry at home with less money and fewer top engineers.

Yu Zhou said: "The United States believes that China is trying to replace the United States, but the fact is that young people are inspired by the development of new technologies such as OpenAI."

She believes that today China’s AI entrepreneurs have no choice but to face the problem of Nvidia’s chip shortage. “When there are no resources, the only thing you have is your wisdom.”

Conclusion: The flow of AI talent is changing

Once upon a time, "going to Silicon Valley for further studies and working in a big company to gain experience" was the golden path for technology elites, and domestic jobs were often seen as a suboptimal solution for career planning.

Last year, MacroPolo released data on the flow of top AI talents around the world. Although 47% of them graduated from Chinese universities, only 13% of them chose to stay in China to work. China seems to have become a talent "reservoir" for the global AI industry, especially in the United States.

However, with the rapid rise of China's AI capabilities, the United States' advantage in attracting AI talent has been shrinking. Perhaps there will be more local teams like DeepSeek that will create results that amaze the world.