DeepSeek CEO says staff work no overtime and have no formal KPIs

In a nearly four-hour dialogue with staff, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng said the company purposefully refrains from overtime and does not impose key performance indicators on its engineers. He noted that only roughly fifty percent of the workday is allocated to formal tasks, allowing the remaining time for unrestricted activity, which he believes is essential for innovative research. Wenfeng described DeepSeek’s structure as vision-driven rather than hierarchy-driven, with no written organizational blueprint.

His comments arrive as venture capitalists such as Harry Stebbings and Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot publicly champion 996-style schedules to accelerate AI development. The discussion highlights a divergence between DeepSeek’s relaxed approach and the growing pressure for extended workweeks in both China and Silicon Valley.