Leaked Liang Wenfeng transcript puts DeepSeek 12-18 months behind the US and freezes a $1.5B round.

A translated transcript of the DeepSeek founder's closed-door investor meeting circulated on GitHub and hit 212 points on HN (HN). Liang concedes DeepSeek remains heavily dependent on Nvidia silicon and estimates China trails the US by 12 to 18 months, alongside pricing math, GPU counts, and a step-by-step AGI roadmap. Reporting indicates DeepSeek has since suspended a second round targeting at least ¥10B (~$1.5B) at a ¥480B ($71B) pre-money valuation after a first-round investor leaked the remarks. A frontier lab's internal capability self-assessment becoming public is rare enough to be worth reading closely.