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DeepSeek wrapping up ~$15B funding round with CATL, Tencent among biggest investors
The Chinese AI startup has raised about 100 billion yuan from more than 15 investors, doubling its original target and valuing the company at 500 billion yuan before new capital.
Why it matters
One of the largest AI financings in China's history. The round doubled DeepSeek's original 50-billion-yuan target — a sign that capital is still piling into China's top AI labs as the US-China AI race intensifies. A STAR Market IPO is now the next milestone to watch.
Full report
Reuters reported on October 22, citing four people with knowledge of the matter, that DeepSeek has generated about 100 billion yuan ($14.98 billion) from existing and new investors, with the investor count exceeding 15; Bloomberg first broke the story earlier on Thursday.
Battery maker CATL and WeChat operator Tencent were among the biggest investors, two of the people said. New investors include Midea, Meituan, automaker Geely and chipmaker GigaDevice; other backers include Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital and existing shareholder IDG Capital.
The fundraising is set to complete in the coming days, but details and the investor lineup are not ironclad and could still change. The round values DeepSeek at 500 billion yuan before new capital is injected.
Reuters previously reported that DeepSeek hired CITIC Securities in September to prepare for a potential STAR Market IPO, and last month the company released its latest model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, aimed at faster inference and higher throughput.
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