DeepSeek has reportedly raised about 100 billion yuan, roughly $15 billion, in a funding round, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The open text of the report includes no DeepSeek statement and no valuation.
What is reported
- Size: About 100 billion yuan, described as "one of the country's largest ever".
- Investors: CATL and Tencent are among the biggest, per the report.
- Target: The goal was raised at least twice before the final tally, from 50 billion to 80 billion yuan.
The details are not public, and they rest on unnamed sources.
What is not known
- Valuation: No figure appears in the open text.
- Company statement: None appears in the open text of the report.
Why it matters
The report puts the round among the country's largest ever, and the target was raised at least twice before the final tally. In our view, that is a sign of how much money is now behind China's AI labs.
In our view, the most obvious use for this much money is computing power, since training and serving large models is expensive and access to advanced chips is limited by export rules. That is our inference, not something reported.
Context
DeepSeek has drawn attention on several fronts this month. A separate report said it plans to train on Huawei's Ascend 950DT chip, and another said the US Department of Homeland Security ordered federal civilian agencies to remove its technology. Both are reports.
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