DeepSeek Plans to Double Workforce After $7.4 Billion Funding Round

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has announced an aggressive hiring campaign to at least double the size of every department, just days after closing a record-breaking $7.4 billion funding round that valued the company at over $50 billion. The move signals a dramatic shift from research lab to commercial powerhouse in the global AI race.

The Hiring Blitz

On June 25, DeepSeek posted 33 open positions across seven major categories on Chinese social media platforms including WeChat and Xiaohongshu. The roles span full-stack development, core AI systems R&D, operations, product management, data engineering, and administrative functions — all open to interns. Positions are based in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia, where the company is expanding its data center operations.

“With the evolution of technology, we are striving to at least double the size of every department,” the company stated in its recruitment post, as reported by Caixin.

Perhaps the most intriguing opening is a special “AI Cross-Border Talent” role with no background restrictions, seeking candidates with “extraordinary abilities” who want to participate in creating AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Preferred traits include “thinking outside the box,” “achieving mastery in a field,” and “entrepreneurial experience” — a recruitment philosophy that reflects DeepSeek’s unconventional culture.

The urgency is palpable. Cui Tianyi, head of DeepSeek’s Harness team, publicly stated that his department is “severely understaffed — interviewing every day and posting recruitment ads on various platforms.” Senior researcher Chen Deli has also been open about the team’s ambition to compete with Anthropic’s Claude Code by building a “DeepSeek Code Harness.”

A Funding Round Like No Other

The hiring spree was made possible by DeepSeek’s first-ever external funding round, which closed around June 15-16. According to ChinaBizInsider, the deal structure is highly unusual: most investors contributed to a limited partnership controlled by CEO Liang Wenfeng rather than investing directly in DeepSeek. They face a five-year lockup period and receive no voting rights, though they get privileged financial disclosures and priority participation rights in future rounds.

Liang himself is the largest single contributor, committing approximately 20 billion yuan (~$3 billion) of personal funds. Major external investors include Tencent (10 billion yuan), CATL (5 billion yuan), and JD.com, NetEase, and IDG Capital (3 billion yuan each).

The sole exception to the founder-control structure is China’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, which invested roughly 1 billion yuan directly into DeepSeek with voting rights and no lockup — reflecting the company’s status as a “national AI champion” in Beijing’s strategic technology ambitions, as reported by the Business Times.

From Research Lab to Commercial Enterprise

DeepSeek was founded in July 2023 as an AI research division of Liang Wenfeng’s quantitative hedge fund, High-Flyer Capital Management. It operated without outside capital and gained global fame in early 2025 with its R1 reasoning model, which matched OpenAI’s performance at a fraction of the reported development cost — challenging US assumptions about China’s AI capabilities.

But the research-first model has proven difficult to sustain. Rising computing costs, an intensifying talent war — with AI engineer salaries in China soaring 50% since 2022 — and key researcher departures have forced a strategic pivot. Luo Fuli, a key contributor to the V3 model, left to lead Xiaomi’s AI division, while Guo Daya joined ByteDance at significantly higher compensation.

What It Means for the AI Landscape

DeepSeek’s transformation carries implications far beyond its own hiring targets. The company explicitly stated in its recruitment post that “humanity now stands on the eve of AGI,” positioning itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

On the infrastructure front, DeepSeek is investing heavily in data centers, with the company stating it is “not just building data centers; we are building the infrastructure on which future AI agents will depend.” This buildout in Ulanqab signals massive compute capacity expansion.

Meanwhile, the company’s continued commitment to open-source development contrasts with OpenAI’s increasingly closed model, potentially reshaping the AI development landscape. And the unusual founder-control funding structure may become a template for other Chinese tech founders seeking to maintain autonomy while accessing large capital pools.

The Road Ahead

DeepSeek now faces the challenge of balancing state influence with founder autonomy, maintaining research excellence while transitioning to a commercial organization, and navigating US export controls on AI chips that could affect its expansion plans. With the global AI talent war intensifying — OpenAI recently released its GPT-5.6 series, and Anthropic’s paid revenue grew roughly 75% since January — DeepSeek’s ability to attract and retain top talent will be critical.

The coming months will reveal whether DeepSeek can execute on its ambitious vision: scaling from a lean research lab into a commercial AI giant without losing the innovative edge that made it a global sensation.