Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is closing in on a 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) funding round, roughly double its initial target. [Getty Images]
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is closing in on a 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) funding round, roughly double its initial target. [Getty Images]

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is closing in on a funding round of 100 billion yuan ($15 billion), roughly double its original target, sources said.

Reuters, citing sources, reported Thursday (local time) that CATL, the world's largest battery manufacturer and an existing DeepSeek investor, and Tencent, the operator of WeChat, both made significant investments in the current round. "The fundraising is expected to close within days, though the financial details are not fully finalized and could change," one source said.

Bloomberg also reported earlier, citing sources, that DeepSeek had raised $15 billion with CATL and Tencent as lead investors.

DeepSeek had originally targeted 50 billion yuan for the round but is said to have attracted more than twice that amount. The result reflects strong interest from Chinese companies and the government, which have staked their ambitions on winning the AI race against the United States and are growing increasingly confident in their ability to do so.

Reuters reported last month that DeepSeek was preparing for an initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market, a technology-focused board often compared to NASDAQ. The news agency said the latest fundraising signals that an IPO is imminent.

Last month, DeepSeek released an AI model called DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, designed for fast inference speeds and high-volume processing capacity, making it suited for scaling to large models.


kate01@heraldcorp.com