It would seem strange, if they were operating in the same economy, but they don't. DeepSeek operates in an economy with a high degree of central planning.

China subsidizes strategic industries, and they have heavily done so with AI. And DeepSeek specifically has said they have no commercialization plans.

For example: https://www.boc.cn/aboutboc/bi1/202501/t20250123_25254674.ht...