China's DeepSeek ramps up hiring with job posts on LinkedIn
DeepSeek's US rivals like ChatGPT-owner OpenAI and Facebook-parent Meta Platforms have been racing to lure top AI talent.
– DeepSeek is ramping up its recruitment on LinkedIn, suggesting the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up may be looking to lure talent from outside its homeland.
The Hangzhou-based company posted 10 positions on the Microsoft-owned jobs and networking platform over the last week, its first listings for several months.
The jobs, posted in Mandarin along with their descriptions, included three roles focused on artificial general intelligence, or AGI. The positions are based in Beijing and Hangzhou.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Similar jobs were posted earlier in 2025 on popular Chinese recruitment sites.
In 2021, LinkedIn shuttered a localised version of its platform in China, meaning many potential job candidates viewing the listings would be based outside of the country.
DeepSeek's rivals in the United States like ChatGPT-owner OpenAI and Facebook-parent Meta Platforms have been racing to lure top AI talent in a quest to dominate what could be world-changing technology.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July
Singapore Over 40% of Singaporean seniors have claimed SG60 vouchers: Low Yen Ling
Singapore Man to be charged after he allegedly damaged PAP campaign materials on GE2025 Polling Day
Singapore $1.46b nickel-trading scam: Ng Yu Zhi's bid for bail midway through trial denied by High Court
Asia 4 dead, 30 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali
Asia Thai opposition to hold off on no-confidence vote against government
Singapore Pedestrian-only path rules to be enforced reasonably; focus on errant cyclists: Baey Yam Keng
Singapore Train service resumes across Bukit Panjang LRT line after power fault led to 3-hour disruption
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Paper
38 minutes ago
- New Paper
Singaporean drivers beware: VEP fines have started
Nine months after the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) was first implemented, Malaysian authorities have begun enforcement operations on Singapore-registered vehicles without an activated VEP tag. Once the clock struck midnight on Tuesday morning (July 1), Singapore-registered vehicles that fell afoul of the rule were pulled aside by Malaysian traffic police at the two land checkpoints and fined RM300 ($90.50). Malaysian law makes it an offence for anyone to drive a foreign-registered vehicle without a permit when entering or being present in the country. Before Tuesday, vehicles without the VEP tag were let off with a warning. According to one Facebook user, police were seen setting up a roadblock on the Malaysian side of the Second Link from as early as 9pm. CNA also reported 15 vehicles stopped within 15 minutes of the start of enforcement after midnight on the Malaysian side of the Causeway. Pop-up counters were set up for offenders to pay their fines immediately. Grace period over Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on June 4 that the VEP system is vital for cross-border traffic control, as well as for enforcing traffic laws on foreign-registered vehicles. Drivers of Singapore-registered vehicles entering Malaysia are required to register online and pay a RM10 fee for the VEP Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, which is valid for five years. Each vehicle is subsequently charged RM20 per entry into Malaysia. Failure to comply may result in the vehicle being prevented from leaving Malaysia until the RM300 fine is paid. Company-owned vehicles with pre-registered VEP tags that have not been activated will be allowed to exit Malaysia with a reminder. This concession is in place because users have faced issues when registering the VEP e-wallet under a company name. Fines can be paid only via cashless methods at Road Transport Department (JPJ) counters, mobile JPJ trucks, or online platforms, such as MyEG. Malaysian news agency Bernama reported that as late as Monday, many Singapore-registered vehicle owners were still rushing to complete their VEP registration at a mall in Skudai, Johor which serves as a registration centre. The Straits Times also reported that waves of Singapore motorists showed up at VEP application and installation centres in Singapore and Johor Bahru after Mr Loke's comments on June 4. When The New Paper drove into Johor via the Second Link just before 9am, there were no roadblocks or enforcement officers observed on the Malaysian side in either direction. The same was noted during the return trip to Singapore an hour later.
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
Trump aims to shut trade loopholes China uses to evade tariffs
[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump's two-tiered trade deal with Vietnam aims squarely at practices China has long used to skirt US tariffs: The widespread legal shifting of production to South-east Asian factories and the murkier and illegal 'origin washing' of exports through their ports. The agreement slaps a 20 per cent tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40 per cent levy on goods deemed to be transshipped through the country. With details still scarce, economists said much will hinge on the framework Washington establishes to determine what it sees as 'Made in Vietnam' and what it sees as transshipments. Complicating matters is the fact that Chinese businesses have rushed to set up shop across South-east Asia since Trump launched his first trade war back in 2018. The lion's share of Vietnam's exports to the US are goods like Airpods, phones or other products assembled with Chinese components in a factory in Vietnam and then shipped to America. That's not illegal. 'A lot will depend on how the 40 per cent tariffs are applied. If the Trump administration keeps it targeted, it should be manageable,' said Roland Rajah, lead economist at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. 'If the approach is too broad and blunt, then it could be quite damaging' for China, Vietnam and for the US, which will have to pay higher import prices, he said. The think tank estimates that 28 per cent of Vietnamese exports to the US were made up of Chinese content in 2022, up from 9 per cent in 2018. Pham Luu Hung, chief economist at SSI Securities in Hanoi, said a 40 per cent levy on transshipped goods would have limited impact on Vietnam's economy because they are not of Vietnamese origin in the first place. Re-routed exports accounted for just 16.5 per cent of Vietnam's shipments to the US in 2021, a share that's likely declined over the past couple of years amid stronger enforcement actions by both governments, Hung said. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up 'An important caveat is that the rules of origin remain under negotiation,' Hung said. 'In practice, these rules may have a greater impact than the tariff rates themselves.' Devil in details Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he's sceptical the latest deal will be effective in stamping out Chinese exports via Vietnam to the US. 'The devil is in the details, but I think China's exports will either go via other markets to the US, or some value-added will be done in Vietnam so the product counts as made in Vietnam, rather than a transshipment,' he said. As officials across Asia rushed to negotiate lower US tariff levels with their US counterparts this year, Chinese businesses have been just as quick to ramp up their exports through alternative channels in order to skirt punitive US levies. Shipments from China to South-east Asia have reached record highs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam this year. And there's been a 'significant increase in correlation' to the region's increase in exports to the US during the same period, Citigroup economists said in a recent report. Much of that is likely due to the shifting of legitimate production across the region. Goods destined for the US market may be sent from their factories in South-east Asia, and what they make in their factories in China will be sent to the rest of the world, said Derrick Kam, Asia economist at Morgan Stanley. 'If you try to represent that in the trade data, it will look exactly like rerouting, but it's not,' Kam said. 'It's essentially the supply chain working itself out.' But it's transshipment that's been a major concern for Trump's top trade advisers including Peter Navarro, who described Vietnam as 'essentially a colony of communist China' during an April interview with Fox News. And it has not just been happening in Vietnam. Not long after Trump unveiled his 'Liberation Day' tariffs on Apr 2, garment makers in Indonesia started receiving offers from Chinese companies to be 'partners in transshipment,' said Redma Gita Wirawasta, chairman of the Indonesian Filament Yarn and Fiber Producers Association. Chinese products would be rerouted to Indonesia, undergo minimal processing like repacking or relabelling, then secure a certification that they were made in the South-east Asian country, Wirawasta said. When the goods are then exported to the US, they'd be subject to the 10 per cent universal levy that Trump has imposed on nearly all countries, instead of the tariff for China that still equates to an effective level of over 50 per cent, even after a recent 'deal' that lowered levies from a peak of 145 per cent. With the huge scope for arbitrage, coupled with little policing, that process will prove tough to stamp out. 'Chinese exporters and their affiliates and partners in South-east Asia are highly skilled at adapting to changing rules, identifying loopholes, and sometimes overstating the extent of value-add by non-China countries,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director at advisory firm Teneo Holdings in New York. Some final assembly or transshipment may shift to rival South-east Asian transshipment hubs like Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore, or farther afield to Turkey, Hungary or Poland, Wildau said. 'Another possibility is that the definitions and enforcement mechanisms are fuzzy, rendering the latest deal cosmetic and toothless,' he said. 'Rigorous enforcement would also require a significant boost of resources to enable US customs to verify compliance with the tougher rules of origin.' There have been efforts across the region to at least be seen to be making an effort to curb the practice. Indeed, Vietnam has made a big deal about cracking down on trade fraud and illegal activity in recent months. In April, South Korea said it seized more than US$20 million worth of goods with falsified origin labels – the majority of which were destined for the US. The Airfreight Forwarders Association of Malaysia issued a warning in May as Chinese brokers promoted illegal rerouting services on social media. Malaysia has centralised the issuance of certificates of origin with its Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, while tapping its customs agency to help curb transshipment. Thailand has expanded its watch list for high-risk products, including solar panels, cars and parts, and is mulling stricter penalties for violators. Red tape Casey Barnett, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, is already seeing the changes in action. One factory that exports to major US retailers, including Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's, said that customs officials were very carefully reviewing their products before being sent to the US, he said. 'It's creating some additional paperwork and a little bit of red tape here,' Barnett said. A senior manager at a logistics company in Cambodia, who asked not to be identified because the matter is sensitive, said export processing time has now stretched to as much as 14 working days – double what it was before. But in Indonesia, getting a certificate of origin is fairly quick and painless when goods are marked for export, often just requiring a product list and a letter to the provincial trade office, according to Wirawasta. Authorities prioritise checking products that enter the country to ensure they pay the right duties and comply with regulations, he explained. It's rare for them to inspect factories where an export good was supposedly made. So much so that sometimes, Chinese companies don't even need to muster up some local processing. 'The T-shirt could be finished in China, with a 'Made in Indonesia' label already sewn on,' Wirawasta said. 'Some traders won't even bother to unload the goods from the shipping container,' he added. 'Unloading costs money.' BLOOMBERG
Independent Singapore
2 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Microsoft cuts jobs again as AI costs climb, to let go of about 9,000 employees
Microsoft will be cutting nearly 4% of its global workforce, or about 9,000 of its 228,000 employees worldwide, the company said on Wednesday (July 2), citing ongoing efforts to manage costs amid heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. This is the second round of layoffs in recent months. In May, the company also announced it would let go of 6,000 workers for the same reason. According to Reuters , which cited Bloomberg's news report last month, the company was planning to cut thousands of jobs, mainly in its sales department. The company had committed US$80 billion (S$101.72 billion) in capital spending for its 2025 financial year. However, the rising costs of scaling up its AI infrastructure have started to weigh on its profit margins, with its cloud margin for the June quarter expected to dip compared to the same period last year. Microsoft said on Wednesday it plans to reduce the number of management layers, with fewer managers, and streamline its products, internal procedures, and roles across the company. The layoffs were first reported by The Seattle Times on Wednesday. See also Turkey scandal of Eric Adams, just tip of the iceberg? On Wednesday evening, Microsoft told Channel News Asia (CNA) that it would continue implementing the organisational changes necessary to 'best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.' Just this week, Business Insider reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that some teams in the company may add AI usage metrics to evaluate employee performance . Developer Division president Julia Liuson reportedly told employees in an internal email that 'using AI is no longer optional' given that 'AI is now a fundamental part of how we work'. India Today reported that while the company has heavily promoted Copilot, Microsoft's AI companion, adoption within the company's workforce has remained lower than expected. It also reported possible layoffs in the company's Xbox division as early as next week. According to Reuters, which cited Bloomberg's report on Microsoft's gaming unit, the company's King division in Barcelona is cutting about 10% of its staff, or around 200 employees. This was confirmed by Microsoft, although no further details were provided. Other major tech firms are making similar moves. In February, Meta announced it will cut off the company's ' low performers, ' about 5% of the company's workforce, to stay ahead in the AI race. The same goes for Google , under Alphabet, and Amazon, which have also cut jobs. /TISG Read also: Microsoft to launch 3 new data centres in Malaysia by mid-year as part of US$2.2B investment
