China’s DeepSeek, the AI company whose inexpensive frontier model took Silicon Valley by storm, is set to raise 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) in its first fundraise as it takes on leading U.S. AI companies.
According to Bloomberg News, DeepSeek’s largest investors are Tencent Holdings and its founder, as well as battery pioneer Contemporary Amperex Technology, citing sources close to the matter. China’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund is also participating, a move seen as a major endorsement from the government.
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng himself is investing about 20 billion yuan, with the rest coming from external investors. The fundraise would value DeepSeek at 350 billion yuan or nearly $52 billion.
The size of the fundraise marks a new level of ambition from AI leaders in China, according to the news outlet. In January 2025, DeepSeek astonished Silicon Valley when its AI model matched the performance of leading U.S. AI models at a fraction of the cost to train.