DeepSeek closes record $15bn funding round in challenge to US AI labs
DeepSeek has closed a roughly 100 billion yuan ($15bn) fundraising round, Bloomberg reports, one of China's largest ever, as the Hangzhou AI startup gears up to take on OpenAI and Anthropic.
Chinese AI pioneer DeepSeek has closed a fundraising round of about 100 billion yuan (US$14.98 billion), one of the largest ever by a Chinese startup, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Hangzhou-based firm raised its financing target at least twice during talks with investors, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan before reaching the final tally, according to The Straits Times, which carried Bloomberg’s reporting. Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings were among the biggest investors in the round.
The close completes the round Flip News reported on 6 October as nearing at least 80 billion yuan (about US$12 billion) — the final figure landed materially higher at roughly US$15 billion.
Bloomberg’s reporting frames the raise as DeepSeek’s bid to compete globally with Anthropic and OpenAI, which have each raised more than US$100 billion. The company is preparing for an initial public offering, one of China’s most anticipated market debuts in years, and has begun spending more aggressively to build out AI data centres and develop open-source models. In September it released V4.1 Flash, a launch that sent shares of local rivals MiniMax Group and Z.AI lower.
DeepSeek, Tencent and CATL did not respond to emailed requests for comment, and Reuters said it could not immediately verify Bloomberg’s report.
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