Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has launched a new wave of international recruitment by advertising roles on LinkedIn, indicating a potential strategic pivot towards tapping global AI talent. The job listings—its first on the platform in several months—come as American counterparts OpenAI and Meta Platforms intensify efforts to dominate the emerging artificial general intelligence (AGI) race.
Over the past week, the Hangzhou-based firm posted ten job openings on the Microsoft-owned platform, including three AGI-focused roles, with all positions based in Beijing and Hangzhou. All descriptions were written in Mandarin, suggesting DeepSeek still prioritises Chinese-speaking candidates, but the use of LinkedIn signals an intention to broaden its recruitment reach beyond mainland China.
This move is significant because LinkedIn shut down its localised Chinese version in 2021, meaning job seekers accessing these posts are likely to be based outside of China, particularly in regions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, or North America. Previously, DeepSeek had relied on domestic platforms to source talent.
Though DeepSeek did not immediately respond to media queries, industry observers suggest the hiring effort may reflect the company’s intent to bolster its AGI development capabilities and better position itself against global leaders like OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and Meta, parent of Facebook and LLaMA.
AGI—the hypothetical ability of machines to perform any intellectual task a human can do—is seen as the next frontier in AI innovation. With US firms pouring billions into developing scalable, multi-modal AI systems, Chinese players are under growing pressure to stay competitive.
Founded by former academics and researchers, DeepSeek is one of China’s fastest-growing AI start-ups, with a reported focus on large language models (LLMs) and applications in enterprise AI solutions. While precise funding details remain undisclosed, the firm is believed to have secured investment from Chinese tech conglomerates and government-aligned funds, positioning it as a state-aligned challenger in the global AI arms race.
DeepSeek’s public presence has been relatively muted in Western markets, but this LinkedIn hiring initiative may signal a shift towards international engagement, or at least a soft test of foreign interest in its mission. By offering roles in AGI, DeepSeek aligns itself with the cutting-edge narrative currently defining the AI talent war.
As the talent pool for AI experts remains tight, global companies are increasingly competing for a limited number of top-tier engineers, especially those with experience in deep learning, transformer architectures, reinforcement learning, and distributed computing.
The company’s increased visibility on LinkedIn may also attract the attention of regulators and policy analysts monitoring the geopolitical implications of cross-border AI collaboration. At a time when US-China tech relations remain strained, talent migration across borders remains a sensitive issue, particularly in strategic sectors such as AGI.
Whether DeepSeek can match the salaries, research freedom, and global prestige offered by Silicon Valley peers remains to be seen. But its LinkedIn foray marks a notable move in China’s expanding playbook to influence the global AI ecosystem.