DeepSeek nears $15bn fundraising goal for AI expansion
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is completing a funding round of about 100 billion yuan ($14.98 billion), doubling its original target, with CATL and Tencent among major investors. The company aims to accelerate development in China's AI race against the US.
Chinese artificial-intelligence startup DeepSeek is wrapping up its latest funding round, having secured about 100 billion yuan ($14.98 billion) from existing and new investors, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings were among the biggest investors in the round, one of the people said. Both sources declined to be named as the information was confidential.
The fundraising is set to be completed in the coming days, but financial details are not ironclad and could still change, the second person said. DeepSeek, CATL and Tencent could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bloomberg first reported on Thursday, citing sources, that DeepSeek had raised $15 billion in the latest round, with CATL and Tencent as its main backers. DeepSeek will have doubled its original fundraising target of 50 billion yuan, underscoring strong interest from investors — many backed by the state and large corporations — as China aims to get ahead in the AI race against the United States.
The fundraising also signals that DeepSeek is moving closer to tapping public markets. In September, Reuters reported that the company had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a potential STAR Market initial public offering.
Last month, DeepSeek released its latest model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, which it said was designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and scaling to larger models.