DeepSeek asks investors not to poach its employees as competition for AI talent intensifies

DeepSeek has asked prospective investors in its $7.4 billion fundraising round not to poach employees or prod them to start new ventures. The condition highlights how fiercely Chinese technology groups are competing to secure and retain top AI researchers.

In Short

• DeepSeek asks investors not to poach its AI researchers
• AI talent is becoming one of the industry's most guarded assets
• Chinese tech firms are fiercely competing to build advanced AI models

As AI models become more capable, companies and governments around the world are no longer viewing AI as just another technology. Increasingly, it is being compared to nuclear technology, a strategic capability that could shape economic and geopolitical power for decades. In this race, AI talent has become one of the most guarded resources. Every major company wants the brightest minds working for them, and the competition for researchers has become as intense as the race to build the technology itself. Recently, OpenAI poached a top AI researcher from Google, whom the search giant had rehired just months ago in a deal reportedly worth over $2 billion.

Now, to prevent poaching of its own talent, Chinese AI company DeepSeek is taking a tougher approach.

DeepSeek's unusual condition for investors

According to a report by fundraising-focused news outlet 36Kr, DeepSeek has attached an unusual precondition to its maiden fundraising round worth $7.4 billion. During a four-hour virtual meeting with prospective investors in May, founder Liang Wenfeng reportedly told participants that anyone investing in the company must promise not to poach DeepSeek employees or encourage them to start their own companies.

The unusual condition underscores how the contest among Chinese tech giants to build advanced AI, and eventually artificial general intelligence (AGI), has tipped into open competition for engineers.

China's AI talent war is heating up

DeepSeek itself has already lost some key talent. Luo Fuli, a core contributor to the company's V3 model, left late last year to lead Xiaomi's MiMo team. The team has since released AI models that outperformed DeepSeek's own on several benchmarks.

Other Chinese tech giants are also battling for talent. ByteDance has lost two key AI developers to Tencent, according to a March report by 36Kr. Meanwhile, The Information reported this week that Tencent invested $20 million in a new AI lab founded by Juyang Lin, the former lead researcher for Alibaba's Qwen models.

A sign of how valuable AI experts have become

While the AI giants in the US, which currently leads the AI race, has not publicly imposed such conditions on investors, DeepSeek's move shows just how valuable AI researchers have become.

The battle to build the best AI models is no longer only about chips, data centres or algorithms. Increasingly, it is also about securing and retaining the handful of people capable of building the next breakthrough. And as companies pour billions of dollars into AI, those people may end up being the industry's most prized asset.

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