DeepSeek raises about 100 billion yuan in one of China's largest funding rounds

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan (about $15 billion) in one of China's largest funding rounds, Bloomberg News reported on Oct 22 [1]. The Hangzhou-based company lifted its target at least twice, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan, before reaching that figure [1]. Reuters reported the same day that the round was set to complete in the coming days, and The Information reported that it closed at 106 billion yuan (about $15.9 billion) [2][3].

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the battery maker, and Tencent were among the biggest investors [1]. Reuters named more than 15 backers, including chipmaker GigaDevice, Meituan, Geely, Midea and NetEase, and a pre-money valuation of 500 billion yuan (about $74 billion) [2][4]. It is DeepSeek's second private round, and founder Liang Wenfeng told investors in September that revenue was running at an annualized $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported [4].

DeepSeek still trains its most demanding models on Nvidia hardware and is working with Huawei to move training onto Chinese-made chips, The Wall Street Journal reported [4]. The round followed a US order on Oct 20 for federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek's AI technology from their systems over security concerns [5]. DeepSeek has retained Citic Securities as an adviser and is planning a Shanghai listing in early 2027 [4][6]. Nvidia reports its next quarterly results on Nov 17 [7].