DeepSeek eyes $71 billion valuation and IPO after explosive $50 billion round just weeks ago

DeepSeek reportedly in talks to raise $1.5B, then IPO

DeepSeek, the Chinese large language model developer, is preparing for a 2027 IPO debut, but it could come as early as the end of this year as it also looks to raise around $1.5 billion in new funds at about a $71 billion valuation, Bloomberg reports. The news comes after the company raised $7 billion in funds just a month ago at around a $50 billion valuation in its first-ever outside funding round. The China-based startup, founded in 2023, made headlines early last year after releasing AI technology that was both more efficient and more cost-effective than U.S. model makers. It has since grown exponentially in popularity. In June, it accounted for nearly 23% of all the tens of trillions of tokens processed by enterprise-focused AI gateway Vercel, the company reports. This is compared to Anthropic taking 32% of tokens. DeepSeek continues to show how Chinese open-source models perform within a few breaths of top U.S. AI Labs, despite U.S. export controls on chips. DeepSeek's cloud service runs on chips made by the Chinese company Huawei Technologies. Investors in DeepSeek include Tencent and Beijing's National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, per Bloomberg.

China's DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at $74 billion valuation ahead of onshore IPO, sources say

HONG KONG/BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) - Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is planning to launch a fresh fundraising round at a valuation of about 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) ahead of a potential mainland initial public offering, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The plan comes just weeks after the Hangzhou-based company, which drew global attention with its low-cost AI models in 2025, raised about $7.4 billion in June a post-money valuation of about 450 billion yuan, the people said. The back-to-back fundraising plans underscore strong investor appetite for one of China's most closely watched AI companies, but also point to the rising costs of competing in AI, which requires large amounts of computing power, data-centre capacity and engineering talent. DeepSeek is looking to raise as much as 50 billion yuan in the new funding round, according to a third ⁠person briefed on the matter. It has also started early deliberations on a potential IPO on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style STAR Market, the three sources and two other people with knowledge of the plan said. The company has set an internal target to complete an IPO filing this year, one of them said. All the people declined to be identified because the information is not public. The fundraising and IPO plans are at early stages and terms and timetable may change, they said. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg News first reported on Tuesday that DeepSeek was preparing for a possible IPO filing, while the Financial Times reported that the company was weighing a fresh fundraising round at a valuation of at least 480 billion yuan. RISING COSTS DeepSeek shook global technology markets last year after releasing models that appeared to rival leading U.S. systems at lower training and operating costs. Soon after its maiden ⁠fundraising round in June, DeepSeek said it planned to double staff across departments, including in areas such as data centres and AI agents, systems capable of performing tasks with limited prompting. Some of those initiatives will require significant capital expenditure. Reuters reported earlier this month that DeepSeek was looking to develop its own AI inference chip and had discreetly increased hiring of chip-design engineers for the project. DeepSeek had long stood out in China's AI sector for rejecting outside funding. Founder Liang Wenfeng had largely bankrolled ⁠the company using his quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer before its recent external financing , sources previously told Reuters. But the cost of staying at the frontier of AI has risen sharply, forcing a change in strategy. DeepSeek has in the past year faced stiff competition at home from tech giants including ByteDance and Alibaba, as well as well-funded AI ⁠startups such as Z.ai, Moonshot, and MiniMax. In the June funding round, DeepSeek founder Liang personally committed 20 billion yuan, while Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), opens new tab and battery giant CATL (300750.SZ), opens new tab chipped in 10 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan respectively to become the largest external shareholders, Reuters reported at the time. Other investors include China's ⁠national AI fund, gaming developer NetEase (9999.HK), opens new tab and e-commerce giant JD.com (9618.HK), opens new tab, as well as investment firms IDG Capital, Loyal Valley Capital, Monolith Management and Shixiang Capital, according to sources and media reports. The participation of the state-backed AI fund highlighted DeepSeek's strategic importance to Beijing's efforts to build domestic AI champions and reduce reliance on foreign technology. ($1 = 6.7704 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Hong Kong and Beijing newsrooms; editing by Philippa Fletcher Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

DeepSeek weighs new fundraising a month after closing first round

Unusually swift pace of capital injection comes as Chinese AI start-up seeks to build out infrastructure DeepSeek is considering raising new funds just one month after closing its first round, as China's leading AI lab seeks to accelerate expansion of its infrastructure. The Hangzhou-based start-up completed its first-ever round of financing around the end of May, which raised about $7bn at a valuation of $52bn, including the raised funds, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. DeepSeek this week started preliminary talks with new investors about opening another round that would value the company at about $71bn before the deal, two of the people said. That would represent a 37 per cent jump in valuation, although details of the new round are yet to be finalised. DeepSeek's unusually swift pace of fundraising stems from expectations of increased capital expenditure to build its own data centre and purchase more AI chips, according to the people. Its push into building AI agents, which can perform tasks autonomously, is leading to much higher demand for computing power. Founder Liang Wenfeng put about $3bn of his own money into the AI lab in the previous round as the largest investor, the people said. Other investors included battery maker CATL, tech groups Tencent, JD.com and NetEase, and venture capital funds including IDG, Monolith and Shixiang. The state-backed national AI fund, a subsidiary of China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the country's strategic semiconductor investor, also became a minority shareholder of DeepSeek. The proceeds from the first round are being used to beef up DeepSeek's infrastructure and hire more AI researchers, as competition to build the best models intensifies in China and beyond. DeepSeek plans to double the size of many of its core teams, joining a fierce talent war as it seeks to commercialise its frontier research. The company said last month it had launched a recruitment drive to "expand every department". DeepSeek emerged as a leader in China's AI research last year after the release of its open-source R1 reasoning model, which demonstrated performance comparable to leading western systems but was trained using more efficient methods. Competition among Chinese AI groups has increased in recent months, with rivals including Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI releasing improved open-source models that have been rapidly adopted by developers. The Chinese labs are also seeking to catch up with global leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI, which have far more resources in terms of computing power and capital. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DeepSeek IPO looms as it chases a $71bn valuation

A DeepSeek IPO could arrive as soon as this year. First, the Chinese AI lab wants a fresh private round at $71bn, up from $50bn just six weeks ago. DeepSeek is getting ready to go public. The Chinese AI lab has started laying the groundwork for an initial public offering, according to Bloomberg. It could file as soon as this year, with a debut targeted for 2027. First, though, it wants to raise more in private. The Hangzhou lab closed its first-ever outside round only weeks ago. That raise took in about $7bn and valued it at roughly $50bn. Now it is talking to new backers about a fresh round. The pre-money valuation on the table is at least 480bn yuan, or about $71bn. Bloomberg says DeepSeek is seeking at least 10bn yuan, around $1.5bn. The final figure could run several times higher, depending on how many investors sign on. The Financial Times first reported the new fundraising. The Information puts the target higher still, at a second round of roughly $7.4bn. A sevenfold repricing in three months A $71bn tag would mark a jump of about 40% in six weeks. Zoom out and the climb is steeper. DeepSeek opened to external capital in April at around $10bn. Within days, Tencent and Alibaba entered talks that pushed the figure past $20bn. By May it was nearing $45bn. The round closed near $50bn in June. That first raise was unusual by design. Only one investor, China's National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, received direct equity and voting rights. Every other backer's money went into a limited partnership that founder Liang Wenfeng controls. They got no vote and a five-year lock-up. The structure would normally empty a room. Instead the round was reportedly oversubscribed. The IPO timeline DeepSeek is working with accounting and banking advisers to finish its financial statements by the end of December, one person told Bloomberg. That is a required step before any filing. A listing could come near the end of this year or early in 2027. The timing depends on when the numbers are ready. No exchange has been confirmed. The market expects mainland China or Hong Kong, where domestic rivals Zhipu and MiniMax have already listed. Zhipu's shares are up nearly 1,600% since its January debut. That precedent helps explain why DeepSeek is edging toward public markets. The timeline would also put it alongside OpenAI. That firm recently pushed its own IPO to 2027, holding out for a $1tn valuation. Why investors keep paying up DeepSeek is not repricing on hype alone. Its annualised revenue recently reached between $400m and $500m, drawn from cloud access to its models, The Information reported. In June, the lab accounted for nearly 23% of the enterprise AI gateway tokens processed by Vercel, per TechCrunch. Only Anthropic, on 32%, ranked higher. It built that position on open-source reasoning models. They perform within striking distance of frontier US labs, despite export controls that limit China's access to advanced Nvidia chips. DeepSeek's cloud service runs on hardware from Huawei instead. It is one of the clearest signs yet that a competitive AI stack can run without American silicon. The founder who answers to nobody The valuation has been personally transformative for Liang. His stake, still around 78%, is now worth about $36bn on paper, up from $16.7bn. That figure comes from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It makes him the wealthiest AI founder in the world, ahead of Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Greg Brockman. Liang has told prospective investors that DeepSeek will prioritise long-term research over quick commercialisation. It will keep releasing open-source models on the road to artificial general intelligence. That is easier to promise when your backers cannot outvote you. Whether it holds once DeepSeek answers to public shareholders is the real question a DeepSeek IPO would test.

China's DeepSeek considers new fundraising after first round, FT reports

July 14 (Reuters) - Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is weighing raising new funds one month after closing its first round, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The company started preliminary talks this week with new investors about opening another round that would value the company at about $71 billion before the deal, ⁠according to the report. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeepSeek, China's best-known AI startup, completed its first-ever round of financing around the end of May, which raised about $7 billion at a valuation of $52 billion, including the raised funds, the FT added. The startup ⁠became China's national AI champion and garnered global fame early last year, when its V3 and R1 models drew widespread praise in Silicon Valley ⁠and challenged U.S. assumptions about China's AI capabilities. Reuters earlier this month reported DeepSeek is developing its own AI ⁠chip, a push that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips, ⁠which it has depended on to train and run its globally popular models. Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Barcelona; Editing by Sharon Singleton Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

DeepSeek reportedly preparing to file IPO as soon as this year

The Chinese start-up is also reportedly discussing plans for a new fundraising round ahead of the IPO, just weeks after it raised more than $7bn. Chinese AI company DeepSeek has reportedly began preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) and may file as early as this year, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The publications, which both cited anonymous sources familiar with the discussions, said that the company has targeted a filing for later this year, which would allow it to debut a listing in Shanghai next year. The WSJ reported that the debut could be as early as the second quarter of 2027. DeepSeek's plans for an IPO come after US rival Anthropic filed for its own IPO at the start of last month, followed by fellow US AI giant OpenAI confidentially filing to go public - although recent reports suggest the latter is considering delaying its IPO to 2027. According to the reports, DeepSeek is currently discussing the listing with investors, banks and accounting firms, with the latter being enlisted to help the Hangzhou-based company finish its financial report by the end of December - a necessary process for the IPO filing. Depending on when the financials are ready, the 2023-founded company could file this year or early 2027, according to Bloomberg's sources. DeepSeek is also reportedly seeking to raise further funding ahead of the IPO, just weeks after it raised more than $7bn at a $50bn-plus post-money valuation. The June funding round saw participation from Tencent and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology, and reportedly came with an unusual condition - with the round requiring investors to put their funds into a limited partnership managed by DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng rather than the company itself. Discussions for the new funding round, which was first reported by the Financial Times, have commenced, with the company targeting a pre-money valuation of $71bn. Sources told the WSJ that the start-up expects to raise several billion dollars in the new round, but that Wenfeng has been "selective in choosing backers to ensure that commercial interests don't interfere with DeepSeek's long-term push in frontier AI research". However, the IPO timeline and the funding plans are subject to change depending on regulatory clearance, market conditions and company performance, sources told both Bloomberg and the WSJ. The reports of DeepSeek's IPO plans come weeks after Chinese regulators relaxed rules for AI start-ups to list on Shanghai's Nasdaq-like market. Last month, the Shanghai Stock Exchange clarified rules that allow unprofitable artificial intelligence model developers go public on Shanghai's Star Market under a set of listing standards that require them to have an anticipated market cap of at least 4bn yuan ($591m), as well as meeting certain criteria in terms of market potential. It's been a busy couple of months for DeepSeek. Not long after its June funding round, the company announced its plans to double the size of all its departments. DeepSeek announced the hiring plans for technical and engineering professionals on messaging platform WeChat, noting that the company is specifically looking to employ additional data engineers, development engineers and AI cross-disciplinary technical talent. The Chinese AI giant shot to fame last year after it launched the R1 AI model, which sent Silicon Valley leaders into uproar due to its cost effectiveness and performance, igniting accusations of theft. Its second major launch, called V4, came more than a year later. 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. 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 considers new fundraising after first round

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is considering another funding round. This comes just one month after closing its initial financing. The company seeks a valuation of approximately seventy-one billion dollars. DeepSeek recently raised seven billion dollars at a fifty-two billion dollar valuation. The startup is also developing its own AI chip. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is weighing raising new funds one month after closing its first round, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The company started preliminary talks this week with new ⁠investors ⁠about opening another round that would value the company at about $71 billion before the deal, according to the report. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeepSeek, China's best-known AI startup, ⁠completed its first-ever round of financing around the end of May, which ⁠raised about $7 billion at a valuation of $52 billion, including the raised funds, the FT added. The startup became China's national AI champion and garnered global fame early last year, when its V3 and R1 models drew widespread praise in Silicon Valley and challenged U.S. assumptions about China's AI capabilities. Reuters earlier this ⁠month reported DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip, a push that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips, which it has depended on to train and run its globally popular models.

DeepSeek Revenue Nears $500 Million as Chinese AI Startup Eyes IPO | PYMNTS.com

DeepSeek's annualized revenue recently reached between $400 million and $500 million, driven largely by sales of cloud-based access to its models through application programming interfaces, The Information reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. The 3-year-old AI company is seeking to raise 50 billion yuan, or about $7.4 billion, at a valuation of 500 billion yuan, or roughly $74 billion, according to the report. That would value DeepSeek at approximately 148 times its annualized revenue. DeepSeek has maintained gross margins of 70% to 80% on access to its V4 flagship model despite charging less than leading U.S. competitors, The Information reported. Infrastructure improvements have allowed the company to process more queries with fewer chips, reducing the cost of running its models. The economics support DeepSeek's broader pitch that powerful AI models can be developed and operated with less computing infrastructure. PYMNTS reported in February 2025 that DeepSeek charged $2.19 to generate 1 million output tokens through its API, compared with $60 for OpenAI's o1 model at the time, making DeepSeek nearly 27 times cheaper. PYMNTS also reported that businesses were adopting DeepSeek's models because of their lower costs despite continuing national security and data privacy concerns. Enterprises could reduce exposure by self-hosting the models, while use of DeepSeek's consumer application created greater data-sharing risks. The Information reported that DeepSeek is particularly interested in attracting Middle Eastern investors. The company has hired investment banks to prepare for a potential initial public listing on Shanghai's STAR Market. It aims to file an application this year and complete the IPO next year, according to The Information. The move represents a shift for founder Liang Wenfeng, who previously resisted external capital and emphasized frontier research over commercialization, according to the Wall Street Journal. It also shows how the need to finance compute is pushing even open-source AI developers toward venture and public markets.

DeepSeek Considers New Funding Round After Raising $7 billion | PYMNTS.com

The Chinese artificial intelligence company wrapped its first-ever round of funding near the end of May, raising $7 billion at a $52 billion valuation, the Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday (July 14), citing three sources with knowledge of the matter. DeepSeek this week began preliminary discussions with new investors about another funding round that would value the company at roughly $71 billion before the deal, two of the sources said. That figure would be a 37% increase in valuation, the report added, though details of the round have not yet been ironed out. The sources added that DeepSeek's unusually fast funding schedule is related to expectations of increased capital needed to construct its own data center and acquire more AI chips. The company's efforts to develop AI agents is driving significantly greater demand for computing power, the report added. According to the FT's sources, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng was the largest investor in the last round, putting around $3 billion of his own money into the company. The report added that proceeds from the initial funding are being used to strengthen DeepSeek's infrastructure and hire more AI researchers, amid greater competition in China and elsewhere to build the best models. As the FT notes, DeepSeek emerged as a leader in AI research in China last year when it debuted its open-source R1 reasoning model, which performed at the same level as leading western systems but had been trained on more efficient methods. In other AI news, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on Tuesday proposed the creation of a U.S.-led standards body to independently test advanced artificial intelligence models for national security threats before release. Artificial general intelligence that can match the human brain across a broad range of tasks is "probably only a few short years away," leaving society a "precious window" to establish oversight, Hassabis said, according to a Financial Times report. "The framework could give AI companies a common testing process while avoiding a separate licensing regime for every model. Independent testers could compare models against common thresholds and update tests as new capabilities emerge," PYMNTS wrote. "The White House has already moved toward pre-release oversight. A June executive order sought voluntary access to covered frontier models for up to 30 days before release to test advanced cyber capabilities. Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI previously agreed to provide models for federal national security testing."

DeepSeek Eyes New Funding Weeks After $7 Billion AI Funding Round

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is already exploring another funding round, barely a month after completing its first-ever external fundraising. The move underlines the soaring capital demands of the global AI race, where companies are spending aggressively on computing infrastructure and custom chips to stay ahead. According to a , DeepSeek has begun preliminary discussions with potential investors for a new funding round that could value the company at about $71 billion before the investment. If completed, the proposed valuation would mark a sharp rise from the roughly $52 billion post-money valuation it secured after raising nearly $7 billion in late May. The fresh capital is expected to support expansion plans, particularly the construction of proprietary data centers and the purchase of additional AI processors needed to power next-generation models and AI agents.

DeepSeek explores $71 billion funding round, prepares China IPO: Bloomberg By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is preparing to file for an initial public offering in mainland China as soon as this year, while also seeking fresh private funding at a valuation of at least 480 billion yuan ($71 billion), Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Track the AI race with InvestingPro's analyst insights and market-moving news The Hangzhou-based company has begun planning for a mainland listing and is targeting an IPO filing later this year that could pave the way for a market debut in 2027, according to Bloomberg. The company has also started discussions with accounting and banking advisers as it advances the listing process. Bloomberg said DeepSeek is simultaneously in talks with prospective investors for a new private fundraising round, only weeks after completing a record $7 billion first external financing. The new round would target a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan, up from roughly $50 billion in its previous funding round. The company is reportedly seeking to raise at least 10 billion yuan, although the final amount could increase depending on investor demand. Bloomberg cautioned that discussions remain ongoing and the timing of both the fundraising and IPO could still change. DeepSeek is working with accounting firms to complete its financial statements by the end of December, a prerequisite for an IPO filing, Bloomberg reported. The company could submit listing documents near the end of 2026 or in early 2027, depending on when the financials are finalized. The latest fundraising discussions were first reported by the Financial Times, while Bloomberg separately reported the company's IPO preparations.