DeepSeek Reportedly Raises $15B With Tencent and CATL Backing
TL;DR
- The round doubled its original 50 billion yuan target at least twice during negotiations, indicating investor demand exceeded even an expanded ask.
- CATL, Tencent, Geely, Midea, and GigaDevice represent an industrial coalition rather than a VC syndicate, covering battery, EV, appliance, and chip sectors.
- DeepSeek hired CITIC Securities in September for a Shanghai STAR Market IPO, setting up a public listing independent of US capital markets.
DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan, or roughly $15 billion, in a round whose biggest backers include Tencent and battery maker CATL, according to a Bloomberg report picked up by TechCrunch. The reporting lands two days after the US ordered federal civilian agencies to remove the Hangzhou lab's AI technology from their systems over security concerns.
The round itself kept growing. The company "boosted its financing target at least twice as it talked with investors, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan before reaching the final tally," Bloomberg reported, calling the deal "one of the country's largest ever."
Bloomberg frames the raise as "a sign of the startup's ambitions to compete globally with the likes of Anthropic PBC and OpenAI," and says DeepSeek has increased spending on "data centres and open-source models as it prepares for a potential initial public offering." DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a TechCrunch request for comment.
On one side of the Pacific, Washington is pulling DeepSeek code out of federal systems. On the other, a Chinese battery giant and the country's biggest social-platform operator are writing checks big enough to make this one of China's largest-ever private AI rounds. Our DeepSeek tracker has logged the countervailing move from Beijing this week, with MOFCOM threatening "all necessary measures" over the procurement ban.
What others are reporting
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Bloomberg Read →
Source-attributed investor confirmation; documents fundraising target escalating from 50B to 80B to 100B yuan; frames the raise as a direct competitive challenge to OpenAI and Anthropic.
The Hangzhou-based company raised its fundraising target at least twice, from an initial 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan, before reaching the final amount.
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Reuters Read →
Most detailed investor roster with 15+ named backers across automotive, semiconductor, food delivery, and VC; names CITIC Securities as IPO adviser for STAR Market listing.
It's encouraging to see such a high valuation for DeepSeek, showing the confidence from investors on the future of its open source strategies.
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China Daily Read →
Chinese state media framing positions this as a domestic AI confidence story; includes Liang Wenfeng's investor communications on pricing strategy and customer demand.
The financing would rank among China's largest fundraising rounds and strengthen the Hangzhou-based company's ability to compete with US rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
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Silicon Republic Read →
Tracks valuation escalation from $52B (May) to $71B (September) to $74B now; includes Chinese Foreign Ministry response defending DeepSeek against the US national security framing.
The raise, albeit significantly lower than what US contemporaries OpenAI and Anthropic wield, represents the Chinese AI juggernaut's appetite to compete on a global scale.
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Android Headlines Read →
Focuses on the two-day gap between the DHS ban order and close; surfaces the 'DeepSeek death zone' concept describing competitive pricing pressure on smaller AI labs.
DeepSeek closed the record deal only two days after the Department of Homeland Security ordered federal agencies to strip its software from government systems.
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Dealroom Read →
Investor mix analysis framing the round as cross-sector industrial convergence; 9+ named backers across automotive, battery, appliances, internet, and semiconductor industries.
China's frontier AI is now funded by its industrial champions: battery, car, appliance and chip companies, plus the big internet platforms.
Originally reported by techcrunch.com
Read the original article →Original headline: DeepSeek Raises Roughly $15B Days After US Orders Federal Agencies to Rip Out Its Tech