Deepseek Funding Round Nears $12B Ahead of 2027 IPO
Deepseek's latest fundraise has grown well past its original target. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese AI startup is close to securing at least $12 billion, and people familiar with the talks say the final figure could get near $15 billion. The company first set out to raise about $7.5 billion at a valuation of roughly $75 billion.
Two backers stand out. Battery maker CATL and internet giant Tencent are putting in the largest amounts. CATL declined to comment on the report. Tencent and Deepseek did not respond to requests for comment.
Why investors are lining up
The demand traces back to one model: V4-Flash. Deepseek released V4-Flash and V4-Pro as preview versions in April. V4-Flash has since set new benchmarks for the ratio of cost to performance when measured against models from Anthropic and OpenAI.