DeepSeek: How China's 'AI heroes' overcame US curbs to stun Silicon Valley

DeepSeek, a little-known Chinese AI firm, released a new model that has astonished Silicon Valley, and the company says it is far cheaper than the billions US firms have spent on AI. DeepSeek says it trained its model using 2,000 specialised chips plus thousands of lower-grade chips, though Elon Musk has questioned this claim. Experts quoted in the article say US chip export restrictions forced Chinese firms to innovate, and Marina Zhang of the University of Technology Sydney says state-backed talent programmes helped build the workforce. The article notes that founder Liang Wenfeng, 40, has been hailed as one of China's "three AI heroes" on social media.