DeepSeek's first working day after the Lunar New Year break: More security personnel deployed outside its building, entrance locked, and all visitors requests turned down

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's latest AI model gained global attention in the last two weeks, but now the company is maintaining secrecy about its next moves.

On the first working day after the Lunar New Year break, DeepSeek's head office in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province, declined all media requests and kept quiet about its potential development, as per a report by South China Morning Post.

Not just media but even other precautions were taken by the company to guard its sensitive information. According to the report, more security personnel were deployed outside the building, and all visitor requests were promptly turned away.


The entrance to DeepSeek's offices on the 12th floor was locked, while a peek through its glass doors showed holiday decorations scattered on the floor, reported South China Morning Post.

This move comes as DeepSeek continues to gain recognition for its low-cost AI models, despite US tech restrictions, as per reports.

According to the South China Morning Post, DeepSeek was as surprised as others by the impact of its two new open-source models, DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, in the global AI market.

DeepSeek’s caution is underscored by the company’s reluctance to set up a public relations department or address investor inquiries, as per the report. This secrecy is further reflected in its heightened security measures and how employees remain vigilant in guarding sensitive corporate information.

The company's founder, Liang Wenfeng, was praised during his Lunar New Year visit to his hometown, DeepSeek’s AI models have gained even more momentum, with major Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Huawei, and Tencent offering their cloud platforms to support the start-up’s models.

While not much is unknown about the company's plans ahead, DeepSeek researcher Daya Guo said on February 1 that the company was on track to "make significant progress" on advances in its AI systems through reinforcement learning (RL), as per his post on social media platform X.

FAQs

What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year is a major celebration in China, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, among other countries. It marks the beginning of the lunar calendar year. It’s a time for family reunions, feasts, and honouring traditions, with vibrant festivities lasting up to two weeks.

What is DeepSeek's latest achievement?
DeepSeek recently gained global attention with its AI models, DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, which have been recognized for their cost-efficiency and powerful performance despite US tech restrictions, as per reports.