Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is close to securing at least 80 billion yuan — about US$12 billion — in a new funding round, surpassing its own fundraising target as the race for AI capital accelerates, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings are among the largest committers in the round, which is closing soon, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are not public. DeepSeek had initially sought around 50 billion yuan, but investor interest exceeded expectations following the release of its latest AI model, and based on signed term sheets the final tally could approach 100 billion yuan.
The raise sets the stage for one of the most anticipated Chinese stock-market debuts in years, with DeepSeek targeting a landmark initial public offering in early 2027. The company is riding momentum from the release of its V4 Flash model, which reset expectations on cost versus performance against leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
DeepSeek plans to deploy at least 160,000 of Huawei's top AI accelerators at a massive data centre it is building in Inner Mongolia, which could create one of the largest known clusters of Huawei AI chips. The startup has also publicly released software developed with Huawei for programming AI chips.
Tencent, which had also made the biggest investment in the startup's previous round at 10 billion yuan, aims to integrate AI more deeply into its platforms. CATL may be looking at a growing market for supplying components to the data-centre industry.
The fundraising had drawn controversy at one point. DeepSeek briefly suspended the deal after comments widely attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng about US–China AI competition went viral on social media. Liang's net worth has more than doubled to about US$36 billion since DeepSeek closed its first round of external fundraising this summer, which valued the company at roughly 350 billion yuan; the current round had targeted a valuation of about 500 billion yuan.
A CATL representative declined to comment, while Tencent and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sources:
DeepSeek to raise at least US$12 bil in Tencent-backed funding — The Edge Singapore (Bloomberg)
DeepSeek To Raise Over $12 Billion In Tencent-Backed Funding — NDTV Profit
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings are among the largest committers in the round, which is closing soon, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are not public. DeepSeek had initially sought around 50 billion yuan, but investor interest exceeded expectations following the release of its latest AI model, and based on signed term sheets the final tally could approach 100 billion yuan.
The raise sets the stage for one of the most anticipated Chinese stock-market debuts in years, with DeepSeek targeting a landmark initial public offering in early 2027. The company is riding momentum from the release of its V4 Flash model, which reset expectations on cost versus performance against leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
DeepSeek plans to deploy at least 160,000 of Huawei's top AI accelerators at a massive data centre it is building in Inner Mongolia, which could create one of the largest known clusters of Huawei AI chips. The startup has also publicly released software developed with Huawei for programming AI chips.
Tencent, which had also made the biggest investment in the startup's previous round at 10 billion yuan, aims to integrate AI more deeply into its platforms. CATL may be looking at a growing market for supplying components to the data-centre industry.
The fundraising had drawn controversy at one point. DeepSeek briefly suspended the deal after comments widely attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng about US–China AI competition went viral on social media. Liang's net worth has more than doubled to about US$36 billion since DeepSeek closed its first round of external fundraising this summer, which valued the company at roughly 350 billion yuan; the current round had targeted a valuation of about 500 billion yuan.
A CATL representative declined to comment, while Tencent and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sources:
DeepSeek to raise at least US$12 bil in Tencent-backed funding — The Edge Singapore (Bloomberg)
DeepSeek To Raise Over $12 Billion In Tencent-Backed Funding — NDTV Profit
