Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek May Raise Up to $12 Billion
Chinese company DeepSeek is close to closing a new funding round worth at least 80 billion yuan ($12 billion), Bloomberg reports.
Initially, the plan was to raise around 50 billion yuan, but demand increased following the launch of a new AI model. The final amount may reach 100 billion yuan.
The largest investors include Tencent, the operator of WeChat and cloud services, and CATL, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles. In the first round this year, they had already invested in the project: Tencent contributed around 10 billion yuan, and CATL contributed 5 billion yuan. DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng invested 20 billion yuan of personal funds.
The company is also considering the possibility of an IPO on the Shanghai STAR Market, but the timing and conditions of the listing have not yet been determined.
