Young Chinese engineers focus on homegrown innovation, drawn by fewer visa hurdles and the chance to build a future on their own terms.

DeepSeek’s latest models, created by a small company with limited resources, are already beating many of the leading AI models in the United States.

SINGAPORE—A Chinese artificial-intelligence company has Silicon Valley marveling at how its programmers nearly matched American rivals despite using inferior chips. AI models from DeepSeek, the Chinese company,