DeepSeek closes $7B+ funding round with unusual structure that keeps founder in control

DeepSeek closes $7bn-plus round with an unusual structure

The founder is putting in the controlling share himself, keeping outside money outside the wheel. DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab that unsettled the industry with a cheap, capable model last year, has closed its first round of outside funding, raising roughly 50 billion yuan, about $7bn, in a deal whose structure is as notable as its size. The valuation lands between $52bn and $59bn, according to Reuters. The unusual part is who is putting in the most. Founder Liang Wenfeng is committing 20 billion yuan of his own money, a controlling share of the raise, which keeps him firmly in charge of a company that until this year had taken no external venture capital at all. DeepSeek had been funded entirely from the balance sheet of High-Flyer, the quantitative hedge fund Liang also founded, and the new round is less an opening of the doors than a carefully managed crack. The largest outside backers are names that carry weight in China's tech and industrial economy. Tencent is weighing roughly 10 billion yuan and the battery giant CATL around 5 billion yuan, which would place two of the country's most significant companies on the cap table while leaving the founder's stake dominant. The presence of CATL, a battery maker rather than a software firm, hints at the breadth of Chinese corporate interest in backing a national AI champion. The structure tells you something about DeepSeek's priorities. By taking the controlling share himself, Liang accepts the cost of outside capital, dilution, expectations, scrutiny, without ceding the control that founders raising at this scale usually give up. For a lab that has positioned itself around an open, research-first identity and declared artificial general intelligence as its goal, keeping strategic independence is part of the proposition. It also sits inside a wider story about Beijing's relationship with the company. DeepSeek has become something of a state-favoured project, the subject of travel curbs on its talent and of national pride in its technical wins, and a funding round anchored by the founder and a roster of major domestic firms reads as much as a strategic statement as a financial one. The valuation itself is a leap for a company that, a year and a half ago, was little known outside specialist circles. DeepSeek vaulted into global attention with a model that matched far costlier Western systems at a fraction of the training spend, a result that briefly rattled US technology stocks and reframed assumptions about how much compute a frontier model truly requires. A valuation approaching $59bn is the market putting a price on that disruption. The figures, as reported, remain attributed to people familiar with the deal rather than to DeepSeek, and the precise allocations could shift. What is settled is the shape: a $7bn-plus raise at a valuation up to $59bn, with the man who built the company writing the largest cheque in it.

The Information: DeepSeek raises $7.4bn at $50bn-plus valuation

The round reportedly required investors to forgo their voting rights and lock up funds for five years. Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has raised more than $7.4bn at a $50bn-plus post money valuation, The Information reported today (16 June). The highly anticipated round into one of China's most valuable AI start-ups, however, comes with an unusual condition, the publication said, requiring investors to funnel their funds into a limited partnership managed by DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng rather than the company itself. Investors' funds are reportedly subject to a five-year lock up period and will not have voting rights. Wenfeng is also the founder of one of High-Flyer, one of China's top hedge funds. According to multiple reports from earlier this month, the funding round into DeepSeek was led by Tencent, which pitched in around $1.5bn, and battery giant Contemporary Amperex (CATL), which invested around $735m into the start-up. Tencent was reported to have proposed taking a 20pc stake in the company. The $8bn state-backed National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Alibaba also reportedly took part in the round, with Wenfeng committing around $2.94bn into the company. The Information has reported that the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund is the only exception to the unusual funding mechanism, retaining both voting rights and freedom from its funds being locked up. The 2023-founded start-up shot to fame last year after it launched the R1 AI model, whose cost effectiveness and performance sent Silicon Valley leaders into uproar, igniting accusations of theft. Its second major launch, called V4, came more than a year later called. The company claimed at the time that V4 "redefine[d] the state-of-the-art for open models". V4 was hyped to be the company's most important launch since R1, and V3 in late 2024. Last week, Bloomberg reported on Chinese plans to build data centres across the country in a bid to further its leadership in AI. The nearly $300bn five-year build-out could represent China's most aggressive plan yet to secure the future of its AI industry, the publication said. China's core AI industry - which boasts more than 6,200 companies - was valued at nearly $174bn in 2025, according to a government statement from March, while the market research firm International Data Corporation placed the Chinese AI market at some $63bn at the end of 2025, with estimates expecting it to cross the $200bn mark by 2029. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

China's DeepSeek closes $7 bln funding round- The Information By Investing.com

Investing.com-- Chinese artificial intelligence major DeepSeek closed its first ever funding round, raising more than 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion), The Information reported on Tuesday. The funding round valued DeepSeek at over $50 billion, and required investors to put their capital into a limited partnership managed by CEO Liang Wenfeng, the Information reported, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Get more breaking news on China's AI giants by subscribing to InvestingPro The odd funding structure is a means for Liang to retain absolute control over the company. It also imposes a five-year lockup on all investor shares during which they cannot sell their stakes, the report said. Deepseek's funding round was seen drawing interest from several major Chinese investors, including internet giant Tencent and battery major CATL. The startup is regarded as one of China's premier AI developers, especially after its V3 and R1 models grabbed global attention last year with their low operating costs and advanced capabilities.