A Hidden Opportunity in the Wake of the DeepSeek Craze

Who will benefit from the AI surge

This is something that’s increasingly been on my mind over the past few weeks, and I just wanted to bring it to your attention. It’s not a fully fleshed-out article, but it should be enough for you to do your own due diligence.

Introduction

While the West is fixated on how DeepSeek has upended Silicon Valley’s tech aristocracy, China is quietly staging its own revolution—one that involves state-owned enterprises (SOEs), provincial governments, and even oil giants suddenly acting like caffeinated startups. The twist? They’re all scrambling for talent, not just GPUs.

Provincial governments and SOEs

Now, state-owned enterprises and provincial governments aren’t exactly known for being overly progressive. Yet, every day, they’re piling into AI. Every hour brings a fresh headline: a province automating its bureaucracy with DeepSeek, an oil SOE revamping drilling operations with proprietary AI. What we’re seeing isn’t just a trend—it’s a full-on scramble. And it’s sparked a war for talent, with SOEs and companies fighting for software engineers and data scientists. So fierce is the competition that state media has even had to intervene, urging companies to “play nicely, children.”