Baidu Ventures CEO Responds to Missing Out on DeepSeek

Feb 10, 2025, 16:40pm2025/02/10 16:41:01 Pandaily

Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures, located right above DeepSeek’s Beijing office, has sparked debates as to why they missed the opportunity to invest in DeepSeek.

In response to this issue, Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures CEO Gao Xue stated on February 9th that when DeepSeek first moved into the Rongke Information Center in May 2024, they promptly visited them and maintained an amicable relationship. However, due to the fact that the large-scale business “Magic Square Quantitative Fund” was not independently structured for a financing plan, similar to other VCs, they were unable to become investors in DeepSeek.

The Magic Square Quantitative Fund behind DeepSeek was established by its founder, Liang Wenfeng, back in 2008 during his studies in Information and Communication Engineering at Zhejiang University. It operates as a hedge fund with expertise in mathematics, computation, research, and AI. Leveraging its substantial financial resources and assets, the Magic Square Quantitative Fund does not rely on external venture capital for its large-scale business development.

Gao Xue further clarified that Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures is BV Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures, distinct from Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />‘s investment division. It was established as an independent venture capital firm by the Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Group in 2017.

Despite missing out on investing in DeepSeek, Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures’ commitment to the artificial intelligence sector remains unwavering. Gao Xue highlighted that Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures has made successive investments in over a hundred Chinese startup companies in AI, including DeepPower Technology in deep multimodal models, Shidi Zhijia and Jiushi Intelligent in autonomous driving, Zhiyuan Technology and Xinghaitu in embodied intelligence, Molecular Heart in AI protein design, and Huayi Quantum in quantum computing. Baidu<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> Ventures will continue to vigorously invest in more Chinese AI startups.

Recent rumors suggested that Alibaba<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> planned to invest $1 billion in DeepSeek, but Alibaba<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> has since denied these claims.