DeepSeek vs Silo AI

Neither company has publicly disclosed a valuation, making a definitive size comparison difficult. DeepSeek employs 150 people, while Silo AI has 100-500 employees.

DeepSeek has raised more in total funding at $700M, compared to Silo AI's $60M — a gap of $640M. Combined, the two companies have completed 1 known funding rounds.

DeepSeek holds the higher Awaira Score at 92/100, compared to Silo AI's 60/100. The Awaira Score is a composite metric factoring in valuation, funding, stage, team size, and market presence — a 32-point gap that reflects meaningful differences in scale or traction.

DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2023. Silo AI was founded by Peter Sarlin in 2017. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

DeepSeek: DeepSeek is a Chinese foundation model company founded in 2023 that develops large language models and AI systems. The company has secured $700M in total funding with valuation details not disclosed. DeepSeek operates as a corporate entity focused on creating advanced AI models for various applications. The company develops large language models designed for natural language processing tasks, code generation, and reasoning capabilities. DeepSeek's approach emphasizes efficient model architectures and training methodologies. The company has released models accessible through API interfaces and web platforms, targeting both enterprise and research applications. DeepSeek competes within the global foundation model landscape alongside companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and other Chinese AI firms. The company positions itself in the rapidly expanding market for accessible AI models, particularly targeting cost-effective deployment and inference. The firm's growth trajectory reflects increased investment in Chinese AI infrastructure and competition in foundation model development. DeepSeek represents part of China's broader push toward AI self-sufficiency and technological advancement in machine learning. Notable aspects include the company's focus on model efficiency and its significant funding round, indicating substantial backing for model development and infrastructure. The company operates in a competitive space where continuous model improvements and capability demonstrations drive market positioning. DeepSeek represents China's emerging capability in developing competitive large language models with substantial capital backing and focus on efficient model architectures. Silo AI: Silo AI operated as a private European AI lab providing foundation model development, applied AI research, and AI product engineering services to enterprise clients across Europe, building custom AI systems and adapting open-source foundation models for domain-specific applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services. The Helsinki company combined academic research partnerships with commercial AI deployment expertise.\n\nThe company raised approximately $60 million in venture funding before being acquired by AMD in July 2024 for approximately $665 million, one of the largest acquisitions of a European AI company. The acquisition gave AMD an AI software engineering team to develop AI software and tools optimised for AMD Instinct GPU hardware, addressing the critical software ecosystem gap that AMD faces in competing against NVIDIA CUDA in the AI training and inference market.\n\nSilo AI competed in the European AI services and research market alongside AI labs and consultancies, but its acquisition by AMD represented a strategic uplift from commercial AI services to chip ecosystem development. The acquisition price reflected AMD valuation of Silo AI engineering talent and AI model optimisation expertise rather than its revenue run rate, indicating the premium that semiconductor companies are willing to pay to close software ecosystem gaps against NVIDIA dominance. Post-acquisition, the Silo AI team focuses on optimising AI frameworks, model libraries, and developer tools for AMD AI accelerator hardware.

Silo AI was founded first in 2017, giving it 6 years of additional market experience. DeepSeek was founded later in 2023. In AI, even a year or two of head start can translate into significantly more training data, customer relationships, and institutional knowledge.

DeepSeek has approximately 150 employees, while Silo AI has approximately 100-500. A larger team often signals higher revenue or venture backing, but in AI, smaller teams are increasingly capable of building at scale.

Yes, DeepSeek and Silo AI are direct competitors — both operate in the Foundation Models space and likely target overlapping customer segments. This comparison is especially relevant for buyers evaluating both platforms.