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DeepSeek Valued at $60 B, Shuns 996 Work Culture

8/1/2026

31 6 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng says the AI firm operates without KPIs, overtime or hierarchy.
Employees can devote half of their workday to unstructured tasks.
After its January 2025 launch, DeepSeek reached a $60 billion valuation and logged 173 million downloads.
By contrast, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, investors Harry Stebbings and Martin Mignot promote the 996 schedule and 72-hour-week contracts, a stance Jack Ma praised as a “great blessing.”

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Story summary

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng says the AI firm operates without KPIs, overtime or hierarchy.
Employees can devote half of their workday to unstructured tasks.
After its January 2025 launch, DeepSeek reached a $60 billion valuation and logged 173 million downloads.
By contrast, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, investors Harry Stebbings and Martin Mignot promote the 996 schedule and 72-hour-week contracts, a stance Jack Ma praised as a “great blessing.”