DeepSeek has raised about $15 billion, roughly 100 billion yuan, according to Bloomberg, in what ranks among the largest funding rounds ever recorded in China. The round comes two days after the U.S. ordered federal civilian agencies to strip the Chinese AI lab’s technology from their systems over security concerns. The Hangzhou-based startup is directing more money toward AI infrastructure and open models for domestic and international markets despite the U.S. restrictions, the report said.
Bloomberg reported that potential investors include CATL, the Chinese battery maker, and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, among others. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new funding follows a June round in which DeepSeek raised more than $7 billion at a valuation of $50 billion. In July the company was reportedly seeking an additional $1.5 billion at a valuation of around $71 billion, with plans for a potential IPO in China as early as next year. The company was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, who previously co-founded the Chinese quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, which helped finance DeepSeek’s early development. Liang still holds an estimated 81.6% stake in its Chinese operating entity following the earlier funding round, according to corporate ownership data analyzed by WireScreen.
DeepSeek drew global attention in early 2025 with its free-to-use, open-weight RI reasoning model, which challenged the dominance of U.S. AI companies. Its continued expansion could further intensify competition among domestic rivals, according to the report. For U.S. policymakers, the round underscores the difficulty of limiting DeepSeek’s growth through federal removal orders alone.
The round is the latest sign of investors pouring billions into AI companies worldwide, including in China, as firms compete in the global AI race. Kimi developer Moonshot AI secured $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May, and Manus AI raised more than $500 million earlier this month. Chinese companies Zhipu AI (Z.ai) and MiniMax, which both went public in Hong Kong in January, have market capitalizations of roughly $29 billion and $7.2 billion, respectively, as of today.
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