Popular Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek said it would make five of its code repositories available under open-source licences, underscoring its commitment to “garage energy”.

The five repositories, which are related to artificial general intelligence (AGI), are to be shared beginning this week, the company said.

Achieving AGI, which refers to the concept of an AI that can perform general tasks in a way comparable or better than a human, is the stated goal of DeepSeek, OpenAI and other AI firms.

‘Garage energy’

The Hangzhou-based start-up said on social media that its “tiny team” of AGI researchers would “be open-sourcing five repos, sharing our small but sincere progress with full transparency”.

“As part of the open-source community, we believe that every line shared becomes collective momentum that accelerates the journey,” the company’s post said.

“Daily unlocks are coming soon,” the post continued. “No ivory towers – just pure garage-energy and community-driven innovation.”

DeepSeek gained worldwide attention late last month after releasing open source AI models that perform on par with Western competitors but which it said were developed for a fraction of the cost.

The company has so far maintained a low-key, research-driven focus, with announcements typically limited to technical developments.

Founder and chief executive Liang Wenfeng contributed to a research paper published last week that focused on “native sparse attention”, a technique for improving large language model (LLM) efficiency in processing large data sets.

Monetisation moves

At the same time, a wide range of companies and organisations in China have rushed to adopt DeepSeek’s technology, cashing in on the company’s sudden fame.

Smartphone makers, search leaders and even electric vehicle (EV) producers have said they would integrate DeepSeek into their offerings.

European AI companies have also said they were adopting DeepSeek as a way of ramping performance while cutting costs.

Last week DeepSeek updated its business registry information to include “internet information services”, according to local media reports, in the first sign that it was moving toward creating a business model.

The company previously listed only engineering and AI software development as its scope of business.