Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan ($14.98 billion) in its latest funding round, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. The investors include chipmaker GigaDevice, food delivery company Meituan and automaker Geely.
Earlier, a financial news service reported, citing sources, that DeepSeek had raised $15 billion in the round, with CATL and Tencent as its main backers. The sources’ account of the round has now been confirmed in more detail by several people.
Who is backing DeepSeek’s latest round
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and Tencent Holdings, the operator of WeChat, both existing shareholders, were among the biggest investors, according to two of the people. Home appliance maker Midea and existing shareholder NetEase also took part, the people said.
Three of the people said other investors include Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital and existing shareholder IDG Capital. One person said the total number of investors exceeded 15.
Sources said DeepSeek is valued at 500 billion yuan before the new capital is injected. The round will take the company well beyond its original fundraising target of 50 billion yuan, which it will have doubled.
Investor interest and the AI race with the US
The rise reflects strong interest from investors, many of whom are backed by the state or large corporations. China is seeking to stay competitive with the United States in the AI race.
Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at research firm Omdia, said the high valuation was encouraging and showed investor confidence in the future of DeepSeek’s open source strategies. Su also said that because the investors are all Chinese and critical component supply chain vendors, DeepSeek could become a key part of domestic tech supply chains.
A second person said the fundraising is set to be completed in the coming days. The financial details and investor lineup are not final and could still change.
DeepSeek could not be reached for comment immediately. Geely declined to comment, and the other firms named in the report did not respond to requests for comment.
Market selloff and DeepSeek’s IPO plans
The fundraising comes amid growing concern over massive AI spending, which this month triggered a new selloff in global tech stocks. That sour sentiment has reportedly led to delays or withdrawals of data center IPOs and weak market debuts for AI-related companies in South Korea and Hong Kong.
Shares of Z.AI and MiniMax, two large language model developers listed in Hong Kong since January, have fallen sharply from their peaks earlier this year. Earlier reporting said DeepSeek aimed to start its IPO process this year and had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a potential STAR Market float.
Last month, the Hangzhou-based firm released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, which it said was designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and scaling to larger models. The company raised $7.4 billion in its first external funding round in June. Filings by two Chinese investors in July suggested DeepSeek was valued at 350.88 billion yuan, or around $52 billion, in that round.
