宝玉 (@dotey) · 10/22/2026, 12:24:50
DeepSeek Seeks $15B Funding Led by CATL and Tencent
Bloomberg reports that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is negotiating a new funding round of approximately 100 billion yuan ($15 billion), led by CATL and Tencent. This marks the company's second major raise in six months, aiming to close the capital gap with US rivals for compute infrastructure, though the deal remains unconfirmed.
SOURCE COVERAGEFull Original Report
DeepSeek is reportedly raising approximately 100 billion RMB (around $15 billion USD) in a new funding round, with CATL and Tencent contributing the largest amounts. The company has not yet officially confirmed this news.
According to an exclusive report by Bloomberg on October 21, DeepSeek has raised approximately 100 billion RMB (about $15 billion USD) in its latest funding round, making it one of the largest fundraising events in Chinese history. The information comes from sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity; neither DeepSeek, Tencent, nor CATL have publicly confirmed the details.
The target amount increased during negotiations. According to Bloomberg, DeepSeek initially planned to raise 50 billion RMB but revised the figure upward at least twice during discussions with investors—first to 80 billion RMB, and finally to approximately 100 billion RMB. Two major contributors are Tencent and CATL, the world’s largest power battery manufacturer. A viral online narrative claiming the target shifted from "11 billion" and finally to "$15 billion" simply reflects these three figures converted into USD.
This marks DeepSeek’s second funding round within six months. Originally funded solely by its parent company, quant fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek conducted its first external fundraising round in June of this year, raising approximately 51 billion RMB.
In that previous round, founder Liang Wenfeng personally contributed about 20 billion RMB, Tencent invested around 10 billion RMB, and entities associated with CATL put in roughly 5 billion RMB. According to a mid-October report by Caijing, CATL plans to invest another ~10 billion RMB in this current round. New investors include Geely and SMIC Capital. The pre-money valuation is estimated at approximately 500 billion RMB; while the fundraising amount doubled, the valuation did not rise proportionally.
Why such a large sum? Training large models is most costly regarding compute resources—specifically, clusters of AI chip servers and the data centers housing them. Bloomberg noted that US-based OpenAI and Anthropic have each raised over $100 billion USD, suggesting this round will help DeepSeek narrow part of that gap.
Online speculation suggests the funds will be used for massive data center construction and open-source model development. Bloomberg also reported that DeepSeek has recently intensified investment in these two areas, though the company has not disclosed how the capital will be allocated.
DeepSeek’s models remain open-source. The V4.1-Flash-1017 model, released on October 17, uses the MIT license, permitting commercial use. The official website and app continue to offer free access.
Investors looking to buy DeepSeek shares must wait. According to Caijing, DeepSeek has engaged CITIC Securities to prepare for an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market. The application could be filed as early as the end of this year, with a listing target of 2027. Specific timing and issuance scale remain undetermined.
Bloomberg Report (Repost): https://t.co/dnNqQZsxkp Caijing Report (Reposted via IT Home): https://t.co/lQCS7aOHPn
↳ Quoting @AndrewCurran_ (Andrew Curran): The Whale has raised another $15 billion.
