DeepSeek raises $7.4B at $55B valuation in first funding round

DeepSeek raised approximately $7.4 billion in its first external funding round, valuing the Chinese AI startup at more than $55 billion in a deal structured to keep founder Liang Wenfeng firmly in control.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek completed its first external fundraising round, raising about 51 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) at a post-money valuation of roughly 400 billion yuan ($55 billion), according to corporate registry data from Qichacha APP. The round makes DeepSeek China's most valuable AI startup, though it remains far smaller than US rivals Anthropic at $965 billion and OpenAI at $852 billion.

"Money has never been the problem for us; bans on shipments of advanced chips are the problem," Liang said in 2023, explaining why he had bankrolled the company entirely through profits from High-Flyer, the quantitative hedge fund he also founded. That changed with this round, though the structure ensures Liang retains control: investors' capital went into a limited partnership he manages, with a five-year lock-up and zero voting rights, according to The Information.

Liang contributed about 20 billion yuan of his own money, making him the largest single investor in the round. Tencent invested roughly 10 billion yuan, while battery giant CATL's ecosystem put in about 5 billion yuan. NetEase, JD.com, Monolith Capital and IDG Capital each invested approximately 3 billion yuan. The China National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, a state-backed vehicle, invested about 980 million yuan directly into DeepSeek rather than through the limited partnership, giving it voting rights and no lock-up — a structure that may intensify scrutiny over the company's ties to Beijing.

DeepSeek stunned global markets in early 2025 with a low-cost chatbot that matched the performance of US rivals while using far fewer chips, briefly triggering a historic selloff in AI stocks including Nvidia. The company released its latest model in April 2026, which Washington has assessed as about eight months behind top US offerings. DeepSeek's systems remain open-weight, allowing developers to customize the software, though like other Chinese chatbots the tools censor topics restricted under Chinese law.

The funding round signals strong institutional confidence in DeepSeek's approach of building competitive AI with constrained hardware access. Tencent's participation is particularly notable — the tech conglomerate operates its own AI models through its Hunyuan platform and stands to benefit from integrating DeepSeek's technology. CATL's involvement suggests the battery maker sees AI as critical to manufacturing optimization and autonomous driving research.

At $55 billion, DeepSeek trades at a fraction of US frontier labs, but the valuation already exceeds that of many public Chinese tech companies. The company has not disclosed revenue or profitability, and like most AI startups globally, it faces the challenge of turning massive infrastructure spending into sustainable profits. The five-year lock-up on investor stakes suggests Liang expects a long runway before any exit event such as an IPO.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.