The man who founded DeepSeek, the artificial intelligence company that rattled the U.S. stock market, is 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng, a former hedge fund manager who said he shifted into tech to close the gap between China and the U.S. in the AI industry.

Liang Wenfeng has gone from boyish, bespectacled math whiz to global tech figure overnight thanks to DeepSeek’s explosive impact on the artificial intelligence industry. The millennial math nerd – who reportedly wore a sweater vest,