Silo AI vs DeepSeek

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

DeepSeek has raised more in total funding at $1.1B, compared to Silo AI's $60M — a gap of $1B. Combined, the two companies have completed 6 known funding rounds.

DeepSeek leads with an Awaira Score of 92/100, while Silo AI sits at 60/100. That 32-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

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

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. DeepSeek: DeepSeek is a Chinese foundation model company founded in 2023 that develops large language models and AI systems. DeepSeek is funded by High-Flyer, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund co-founded by Liang Wenfeng, who also serves as DeepSeek's CEO. The company has not disclosed specific external funding amounts. 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 got there first, launching in 2017 — that's 6 years of extra runway. DeepSeek didn't arrive until 2023. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Silo AI has about 100-500 employees; DeepSeek has about 150. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both Silo AI and DeepSeek compete in Foundation Models, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.