Point72 Founder Says DeepSeek Is ‘Super Bullish’ For AI Industry

The impact of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek on world markets is “actually super bullish” for the AI industry, said Steve Cohen, founder of $37 billion (£31bn) hedge fund Point72.

“It advances the move to artificial superintelligence. And that’s coming, it’s coming quick,” Cohen said at the iConnections conference in Miami.

Artificial general superintelligence refers to the concept of AI that performs better than human intelligence at most tasks.

The path to such a technology is “not going to go in a straight line” but there are “going to be a lot of winners” along the way, he said in widely reported comments.

Liang Wenfeng, right, founder of AI chatbot start-up DeepSeek, pictured in January 2025. Image credit: CCTV
Liang Wenfeng, right, founder of AI chatbot start-up DeepSeek, pictured in January 2025. Image credit: CCTV

AI progress

DeepSeek came to prominence over the weekend when it rose to the top of iPhone free downloads in the US, spurring a sell-off of major technology shares with exposure to AI.

The one-year-old start-up was formed Liang Wenfeng, himself the founder of $8bn hedge fund High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management, fund who had initially applied machine learning techniques to computerised trading models.

DeepSeek said its AI models perform on par or better than those from the likes of OpenAI or Anthropic while being developed for a fraction of the cost, raising questions over Western tech companies’ heavy spending on AI infrastructure.

Response to the unexpected development has been divided, with US president Trump calling DeepSeek’s technology a positive development since it cut costs, while the administration also said it was investigating the app’s national security implications.

Cohen said Trump’s focus on reducing regulations has “a lot to like” but predicted that markets could peak soon due to the president’s suggested tariff and immigration plans.

Such policies could “actually slow growth, not increase growth in 2025” and could make inflation more difficult to manage, he said in a wide-ranging interview at the conference.

Tariffs “are a tax” that could slow consumer spending, Cohen said.

Tariff threat

The US, Canada and the EU have brought in steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles over the past year, and the new US administration has proposed wide-ranging tariffs on other sectors and specific countries, including China, Canada and Mexico.

Such factors are likely to mean a peak for markets in the coming weeks, Cohen suggested.

“I would expect the market to top over the next couple of months if it hasn’t already topped already,” he said.

He said his decision to step away from trading last year had given him the ability to focus more on the people at his companies.

“I describe it as being immersed in a video game, and it’s so immersive that you just forget what’s going on around you,” he said of trading.

Matthew Broersma

Matt Broersma is a long standing tech freelance, who has worked for Ziff-Davis, ZDnet and other leading publications

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