DeepSeek Open-Source Large Models and Low-Cost API Platform

📌 Background

In early 2025, DeepSeek shook the global AI industry with its extremely low training costs and open-source strategy, achieving inference costs that were only one-twentieth of comparable models. After completing its first round of financing of approximately 51 billion RMB in 2026, the company transitioned from a pure model laboratory to an AI infrastructure platform, beginning to pursue ARR. The open-source route allows global developers and enterprises to use the models for free, monetizing subsequently through API calls and enterprise services to form a unique ecosystem.

👤 Target Customers

Paying parties include developers and enterprises calling APIs, large institutions requiring private deployment, and industrial customers building applications based on DeepSeek models.

💰 Revenue Streams

1) Pay-as-you-go API billing, with inference call revenue as the mainstay; 2) Cloud model subscription and enterprise private deployment service fees; 3) Ecosystem partner revenue sharing and model fine-tuning service fees.

🧮 Cost Structure

Computing cluster procurement and maintenance account for the majority R&D talent compensation (small but elite team) Data collection and training resource costs

🛡️ Moat

Ultimate engineering optimization capabilities make training and inference costs far lower than industry peers The open-source community forms a global developer network effect, with model iteration speed outperforming closed-source rivals Flat team culture without big-tech hierarchy, attracting high density of top technical talent

🔑 Keys to Success

• Continuously maintain the lead in training costs and inference efficiency
• Build developer ecosystem stickiness to make APIs the default entry point
• Upgrade from a model supplier to an AI infrastructure platform

⚠️ Risks

• Geopolitics leading to chip supply interruptions
• Difficulty in converting the free open-source model into sustained high-profit revenue
• Big tech companies following suit with low-price strategies, weakening differentiation

🏢 Cases

• DeepSeek-R1 widely deployed in the global developer community after open-sourcing
• DeepSeek completed its first round of 51 billion financing at a valuation benchmark of approximately 50 billion RMB

📊 SWOT Analysis