High-Flyer, formally Ningbo High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), is a Chinese hedge fund company incorporated in February 2016. Its legal registration address is in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and its main office is in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The firm is notable for its early and extensive use of Machine learning and Deep learning techniques in quantitative trading, and it is the founder and financial backer of the AI research organization DeepSeek. High-Flyer operates through two regulated subsidiaries in China and a Hong Kong-based entity, managing hundreds of investment products.
History
High-Flyer was founded in February 2016 by Liang Wenfeng and two classmates from Zhejiang University, who had developed ideas for algorithmic trading during the 2008 financial crisis. The company established two subsidiaries regulated by the Asset Management Association of China: Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management Co., Ltd. (2015) and Ningbo High-Flyer Quant Investment Management Partnership LLP (2016). Together, these subsidiaries offered over 450 investment products.
In 2016, High-Flyer experimented with a multi-factor price-volume model for stock positions, began test trading the following year, and then more broadly adopted machine-learning-based strategies. In 2019, it set up a Securities and Futures Commission-regulated subsidiary in Hong Kong, High-Flyer Capital Management (Hong Kong) Limited, which was approved as a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor in 2020. That same year, High-Flyer established High-Flyer AI, a unit dedicated to researching AI algorithms and their basic applications.
In 2020, High-Flyer built Fire-Flyer I, a supercomputer focused on AI deep learning, costing approximately 200 million yuan. It was retired in 2021 and replaced by Fire-Flyer II, which cost 1 billion yuan and contained 10,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs. By 2021, all of High-Flyer's strategies were using AI, drawing comparisons to Renaissance Technologies. However, at the end of 2021, the company issued a public statement on WeChat apologizing for losses, as over 100 of its investment products declined by more than 10%. High-Flyer attributed the decline to its AI models timing trades poorly, taking on higher risk during market fluctuations, and expanding assets too quickly, which led to similar trading strategies. Up to that point, High-Flyer had produced returns 20–50% above stock-market benchmarks.
In March 2022, High-Flyer advised clients sensitive to volatility to withdraw funds, predicting further market declines. In April 2023, it announced the formation of a new research body to explore the essence of artificial general intelligence, which would not be used for stock trading; this organization became DeepSeek. From 2018 to 2024, High-Flyer consistently outperformed the CSI 300 Index, but after a regulatory crackdown on quantitative funds in February 2024, its funds trailed the index by 4 percentage points. In July 2024, High-Flyer published an article defending quantitative funds against pundits blaming them for market fluctuations and calling for bans, stating it held stocks with solid fundamentals long-term and traded against irrational volatility. In October 2024, it shut down its market neutral products after a surge in local stocks caused a short squeeze. High-Flyer was the second-best performer among Chinese quant funds in 2025, with a return of 56.6%.
Corporate affairs
As of 2021, High-Flyer's investment and research team had 160 members, including Olympiad gold medalists, experts from internet giants, and senior researchers. The company recruited deep learning scientists by offering annual salaries up to 2 million yuan. In 2022, it donated 221 million yuan to charity as part of the Chinese government's "common prosperity" push.
In March 2023, High-Flyer was sued by Shanghai Ruitian Investment LLC for hiring an employee who allegedly possessed quantitative strategy codes considered "core commercial secrets"; the rival sought 5 million yuan in compensation. In May 2023, the court ruled in favor of High-Flyer. In October 2023, High-Flyer suspended co-founder and senior executive Xu Jin due to his "improper handling of a family matter" and "a negative impact on the company's reputation," following a social media accusation and a divorce court case filed by his wife over an extramarital affair.
Technology and strategy
High-Flyer's trading approach relies heavily on Neural network models and Large language model research, though its core strategies focus on price-volume and multi-factor signals. The Fire-Flyer supercomputers, built with Nvidia A100 GPUs, support both trading and AI research. The firm's pivot to Generative AI and Transformer (architecture) architectures in 2023, through DeepSeek, reflects its ambition beyond financial markets, aiming to advance fundamental AI capabilities.
See also
- DeepSeek
- Quantitative fund
- Hedge fund
- Artificial intelligence