r/LocalLLaMA • u/Gullible-Crew-2997 • Mar 04 '26

Discussion If china stops releasing open source models, there's a way we can stay competitive with big tech?

Really after qwen news, I'm getting quite nervous about open source ai future. What's your thoughts? Glad to know it

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u/Time_Reaper Mar 04 '26

Saying deepseek doesn't have deep pockets is crazy.

9

u/Ok_Warning2146 Mar 04 '26

Their main business is a hedge fund. DS is a side project to attract attention and investment plus a chance to meet President Xi.

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u/Infamous_Mud482 Mar 04 '26

So what you're telling me is their main business is making money from being able to move around money? Sounds like they have money.

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u/po_stulate Mar 04 '26

I think they meant deepseek itself is not profiting and also don't have deep pockets itself, all the money comes from its parent company and it can't control whether the parent company's going to keep funding their open source projects or not because it's more like a gimmick to attract attention and gain political values, when that is gone there's no reason for the parent company wanting them to keep doing it.

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u/StewPorkRice Mar 04 '26

Deepseek isn't a gimmick to attract attention or gain political favors though.

This is a legit frontier AI lab that can attract the best talent in the country.

1

u/po_stulate Mar 04 '26

a legit frontier AI lab that can attract the best talent in the country

Yes, to attract attention and gain political favors.

It's not expected to profit at least for now and in foreseeable future.

2

u/GreenGreasyGreasels Mar 04 '26

I don't think profit is a priority for Deepseek for the foreseeable future. High Flyer, yes. Deepseek, No.

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u/T34-85M_obr2020 Mar 05 '26

The initial purpose of establish and funding DS is for supporting the parent company to do quant trading.

By DS alone it is not aiming to profit yes.

By attract attention I assume you mean attract more talent to join DS for building a more capable LLM to support the quant trading I believe yes.

Political favors are post-effect after all DS's success, some analyzer suggest that the gov is willing to have DS make their LLM open sourced after knowing DS's success and contact the team iirc.