Two days following the U.S. directive for federal civilian agencies to purge DeepSeek’s AI technology from their systems due to security concerns, the Chinese AI laboratory has reportedly secured approximately $15 billion, or 100 billion yuan. This represents one of the largest funding rounds in the country, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to the report, potential investors in this massive round include the Chinese battery manufacturer CATL and Tencent, the operator of the WeChat messaging platform, among other entities.
This reported funding follows a significant investment round in June, where the company raised over $7 billion at a valuation of $50 billion. Additionally, DeepSeek had been seeking an extra $1.5 billion at a valuation of roughly $71 billion in July, with plans for a potential initial public offering in China as early as next year.
The Hangzhou-based AI startup is increasing its expenditure on AI infrastructure and open models for both domestic and international markets, even as it navigates U.S. restrictions. The report notes that this expansion could further intensify competition among rival companies.
This massive funding round underscores the trend of investors pouring billions into AI companies globally—including those in China—to compete in the AI race. For instance, Moonshot AI, the developer of Kimi, secured $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May, while Manus AI raised over $500 million earlier this month. Additionally, Chinese companies Zhipu AI and MiniMax, which listed in Hong Kong in January, currently hold market capitalizations of approximately $29 billion and $7.2 billion, respectively.
DeepSeek was established in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, who previously co-founded the Chinese quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, a source that also helped finance the startup's early development. The AI company garnered global attention in early 2025 with its free-to-use, open-weight reasoning model, which challenged the dominance of U.S. AI firms. According to corporate ownership data analyzed by WireScreen, Liang maintains an estimated 81.6% stake in the company's Chinese operating entity following the earlier funding round.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TechCrunch.
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