# The Engineering Unlocks Behind DeepSeek | YC Decoded

**Author:** Diana Hu
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/M7-the-engineering-unlocks-behind-deepseek-yc-decoded
**YouTube ID:** 4Tmn-XP93m4

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Chinese AI company DeepSeek recently made waves when it announced R1, an open-source reasoning model that it claimed
achieved comparable performance to OpenAI’s o1, at a fraction of the cost. But for those following AI developments
closely, DeepSeek and R1 didn’t come out of nowhere.   
  
In this episode of YC Decoded, General Partner Diana Hu breaks down the key engineering optimizations behind DeepSeek's
remarkable new models — and contextualizes them within the broader history of recent AI breakthroughs.

