Takeaways from DeepSeek expert call: Beyond model intelligence, cost efficiency and ecosystems gain in importance

Nomura hosted an industry expert to discuss DeepSeek's (unlisted) model roadmap, competitive positioning and the evolving Chinese LLM landscape. The key takeaway is that DeepSeek aims to differentiate itself through competitive cost-performance models via a dual-track strategy: larger flagship models pushing the intelligence frontier while cost-efficient Flash models maximize reach. Beyond architecture innovation, the expert believes DeepSeek's competitive strength lies in superior expertise on model infrastructure and deployment optimization, which underpins its competitive API pricing;