IT之家 · IT业界 · 10/22/2026, 11:00:52
DeepSeek Raises ~100B RMB to Challenge Silicon Valley Giants and Prep for IPO
DeepSeek has raised approximately 100 billion RMB in its latest funding round, marking one of the largest financings in Chinese history. This capital injection aims to narrow the funding gap with US giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, supporting global expansion and data center construction while paving the way for a potential IPO. Although still lagging behind top US labs in financial resources, DeepSeek's strategy of low-cost, high-performance models is significantly disrupting domestic competitors and reshaping the global market landscape.
SOURCE COVERAGEFull Original Report
On October 22, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that DeepSeek raised approximately 100 billion RMB in its latest funding round, making it one of the largest fundraising events in Chinese history. This capital injection underscores DeepSeek’s global expansion ambitions as it seeks to compete with AI giants such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
According to the sources, DeepSeek raised its fundraising target at least twice during negotiations with investors, increasing the scale from an initial plan of 50 billion RMB to 80 billion RMB, ultimately reaching approximately 100 billion RMB. CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) and Tencent Holdings were among the key investors in this round.
This funding also paves the way for DeepSeek’s potential IPO, positioning it as one of the most anticipated listings in China’s capital markets in recent years. In 2025, DeepSeek demonstrated its ability to compete with Silicon Valley giants by offering models at significantly lower costs, triggering a global market sell-off that wiped out $1 trillion in market value (Note: At current exchange rates, this is equivalent to approximately 6.69 trillion RMB).
However, compared to top-tier US AI labs, DeepSeek has historically lacked substantial financial backing. This new funding helps narrow the financial gap, but DeepSeek’s resources remain far behind those of Anthropic and OpenAI, each of which has raised over $100 billion (equivalent to approximately 668.933 billion RMB at current exchange rates). Previous reports indicated that both DeepSeek and its competitor Moonshot AI are preparing for IPOs, marking significant milestones for China’s capital markets.
DeepSeek has also begun increasing investment in building more AI data centers while developing open-source models for both domestic and international markets.
The report notes that DeepSeek continues to release AI models that are high-performing yet low-cost, putting pressure on domestic competitors while attracting customers in overseas markets like the United States. The V4.1 Flash model, launched in September, caused stock prices of domestic rivals MiniMax and Zhipu AI to drop.
Across the industry, companies such as Alibaba and ByteDance have also rolled out low-cost AI services, often open-sourcing their models to allow customers to customize them as needed.
A benchmark chart released by AI evaluation firm Artificial Analysis has circulated widely within the industry, illustrating what is termed the "DeepSeek Death Zone": if competitors cannot outperform DeepSeek in capability nor offer lower prices than DeepSeek, they will struggle to survive.