This article is based on publicly available information for the purpose of information exchange and does not constitute investment advice.

DeepSeek, China's most groundbreaking large model to date, emerged from the quant hedge fund Huanfang. Across the Pacific, top large model companies seeking commercialization paths appear to be converging on Wall Street's quant hedge funds.

Bloomberg reports that on the eve of GPT-5's release, Anthropic, a prominent emerging AI firm, met with approximately 150 quant researchers at a rooftop bar in New York's Lower East Side for recruitment activities.

Anthropic's competitors, OpenAI and Perplexity AI, had already made similar moves long before this. Notably, the leaders in the US AI industry share a quant fund background, including Mark Chen, Chief Research Officer of OpenAI, and Johnny Ho, co-founder of Perplexity, echoing the trajectory of China's Huanfang leader Liang Wenfeng.

Young talents successful in quant funds share a common trait: generous salaries and bonuses. Their shift to AI large models often signals two things:

1. Aspiration to become AI evangelists

2. Higher compensation in the AI large model industry

The AI industry's preference for these financial elites might stem from Liang Wenfeng's influence or because the financial sector has become an attractive frontier for AI large model companies.

However, some voices reveal a more pragmatic truth: the vision of creating a "machine god" may devolve into the task of "getting users to click on ads." Regardless of the motivation, competition between the AI industry and traditional finance is intensifying.

For Wall Street, this exacerbates the fierce competition for quant talent. Unlike Wall Street firms, Silicon Valley AI companies are not bound by non-compete agreements under California law—an asymmetric war.

Mike Doonan, a technology recruiter, told Bloomberg, "I estimate that in the past 12-18 months, we've seen a 12-18% increase in AI-native and software companies specifically recruiting talent with quant finance backgrounds."

Salary comparisons show that entry-level quants on Wall Street can earn up to $300,000 in base salary, excluding substantial bonuses. In Silicon Valley, AI companies now offer comparable base salaries, supplemented by equity-based compensation packages rather than bonuses.

Wall Street's fears have materialized. While programmers lament their uncertain fate in the era of AI, even renowned quant hedge funds like Jane Street have lost their allure to top talent compared to AI newcomers. A young talent who left Jane Street for Anthropic noted in a media interview that while their previous fund was a great workplace, becoming part of "the next big thing" was more exciting.

OpenAI has declined to comment on similar phenomena, but its CEO Sam Altman highlighted "quant-focused" recruitment in an April post on X, providing insight into industry talent trends.

Industry consensus holds that quant trading, like AI research, involves sifting through vast amounts of unstructured data. Quant elites excel at reducing algorithm latency, making them ideal AI developers.

Anthropic stated in a release that it seeks the "rigorous analytical thinking and empirical research methods" of quant analysts, skills that "overlap significantly with the technical challenges of developing safer and more powerful AI systems." The company plans to continue recruiting specialized talent as it scales.

More critically, companies like Anthropic and Perplexity are increasingly venturing into financial services products. They are poaching talent from Wall Street and may soon target its lifeblood.

Wall Street is reportedly trying to counter this poaching by AI companies, but concrete actions are scarce. This is unsurprising given the situation—the loopholes were self-created. Besides non-direct competition with financial companies, Wall Street upholds non-compete agreements, while California prohibits them.

The Silicon Valley vs. Wall Street war over "AI alchemists" has just begun, reaffirming the value of China's DeepSeek. It's a cyclical pattern, and we can foresee the next battlefield for China's tech giants after the "food delivery war."