DeepSeek Is Just the Latest Hedge Fund Innovation
From the telescope to the telegraph to AI, finance has promoted the use of new technology.
Hedge funds have long gotten bad press. Criticized for short selling, corporate agitation or destructive greed, their contribution to economic activity isn’t always clear. For as long as they have been around, they’ve been subject to scrutiny over the role they play in society relative to the value they extract.
Last week’s propulsion of DeepSeek to the top of Apple Inc.’s App Store charts puts a different slant on the popular narrative. DeepSeek shocked the world when it released artificial intelligence models that achieve similar performance to those currently available on the market at a fraction of the cost. While various aspects of the company’s story have drawn attention, one particularly notable detail stands out: It was incubated by a hedge fund.