Claims

Factual · AI capabilities

“It's completely open - source, and anyone can download and run it.”

Marc Andreessen, a16z co-founder · 7 January 2026 · 2026 Early Interview with Marc Andreessen: AI Revolution Just Started (36Kr)

The DeepSeek model is completely open-source and anyone can download and run it.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2026-01-07 for the DeepSeek model under discussion (for example DeepSeek-R1 or V3). True: the model weights are publicly released under a permissive or open licence (such as MIT) and can be freely downloaded (for example from Hugging Face) and run locally by anyone with suitable hardware. Mostly true: the weights are openly downloadable and runnable, but 'completely open-source' slightly overstates it because training data or full training code were not released (open weights rather than fully open source). Mixed: the weights are downloadable only under significant licence restrictions, or only some variants are open. Mostly false: only limited or distilled versions are downloadable. False: the weights are not publicly downloadable, and access is only by API.

Evidence

1. DeepSeek-R1 Release DeepSeek · 20 January 2025

   “Code and models are released under the MIT License: Distill & commercialize freely!”

2. DeepSeek-R1/README.md at main · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 GitHub (deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 repository) · 20 January 2025

   “This code repository and the model weights are licensed under the MIT License.”

3. Understanding the DeepSeek model license: Balancing openness and responsibility Black Duck · 4 February 2025

   “Although the source code for DeepSeek is licensed under the permissive MIT license, the DeepSeek model itself is governed by the DeepSeek license, which does not meet the definition of an open source license.”

4. Open Weights vs Open Source: The Real Difference (2026) geotoolbox.ai · 3 July 2026

   “But DeepSeek does not release its training data or full training code, so you cannot reproduce or fully audit the model.”

Reasoning

DeepSeek's R1 release announcement and the R1 repository README both say the model weights are released under the MIT License (E1, E2). That meets the criteria for openly downloadable, permissively licensed weights. However, E4 says DeepSeek does not release its training data or full training code, so "completely open-source" overstates it: these are open weights, not fully open source. E3 says the DeepSeek model itself is governed by a DeepSeek licence that does not meet the definition of an open-source licence, while E2 says the R1 model weights are licensed under MIT; the quoted passage from E3 does not specify which model it refers to.

Cite this claim

Marc Andreessen, “The DeepSeek model is completely open-source and anyone can download and run it.” (said 7 January 2026). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_0760c435ee7e, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_0760c435ee7e