The Pulse
DeepSeek’s $15 Billion Fundraising Round Is Still Being Finalized
DeepSeek’s latest fundraising has reached about 100 billion yuan, or nearly $15 billion, but Reuters says the round is expected to close in the coming days and its terms could still change. Bloomberg reported the fundraising on October 22,
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
DeepSeek’s target grew during fundraising
DeepSeek is wrapping up a funding round that has generated about 100 billion yuan, or $14.98 billion, from existing and new investors, Reuters reported on October 22, citing four people with knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg reported on October 22 that the Hangzhou-based AI company had raised about 100 billion yuan, or $15 billion. The round is not yet complete: Reuters says it is expected to close in the coming days, and that its financial details and investor lineup could still change.
According to Bloomberg’s account, DeepSeek raised its target at least twice while talking with investors, moving from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan before arriving at the reported total. Reuters likewise reported that the company will have doubled its original 50-billion-yuan target. Bloomberg described the reported financing as one of the largest in China’s history.
The reported amount points to the scale of DeepSeek’s effort to compete globally with US AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic. It does not, by itself, establish how DeepSeek’s models perform against those companies’ products or how the company will use the capital.
CATL and Tencent among major backers
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., known as CATL, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeChat, were among the largest investors, according to both Bloomberg and Reuters. Reuters said two of its sources identified them as major investors. It did not report the amounts they invested.
Reuters also named several other participants. Home-appliance maker Midea, food-delivery company Meituan, automaker Geely and semiconductor maker GigaDevice became new investors in the round, according to the report. Boyu Capital, CPE and Legend Capital were also among the investors, along with existing shareholder IDG Capital. One source told Reuters the round had more than 15 investors.
The reports do not establish final contributions by individual investors. Reuters also cautioned that the investor lineup could change before the fundraising closes, so the names and roles described in its account should be treated as preliminary.
Reports describe a fundraising, not a completed close
Bloomberg’s October 22 story attributed the reported total and the changes to the fundraising target to people familiar with the matter; it was Bloomberg news reporting, not an announcement from DeepSeek. Reuters separately reported its own sourcing from four people familiar with the round. DeepSeek, CATL and Tencent could not immediately be reached for comment, Reuters said.
Reuters reported that the round values DeepSeek at 500 billion yuan before the new capital is injected. It also linked the fundraising to the company’s possible pursuit of public markets: Reuters had previously reported that DeepSeek hired CITIC Securities in September to prepare for a potential initial public offering on Shanghai’s STAR Market. That preparation does not mean an IPO has been announced.
Reuters further noted that DeepSeek released its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model the previous month. The company said the model was designed to offer greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and the ability to scale to larger models. Those are the company’s stated aims for the model; the funding reports do not provide independent evidence of its performance.
For now, the reports describe a large round that is still being completed, a target that rose from 50 billion yuan to a reported total near 100 billion yuan, and a group of more than 15 investors whose final lineup may change. The final terms and the amounts committed by individual backers remain unreported.