DeepSeek Revenue Hits $1B Run Rate, Eyes $7.5B Shanghai Raise
TL;DR
- DeepSeek's 82.9% API gross margin exceeds OpenAI's reported 39% Q1 2026 and Anthropic's projected 63% 2026, driven by chip-efficient model architecture.
- Revenue of roughly 475 million yuan in the first seven months of 2026 is approximately 10x DeepSeek's full-year 2025 revenue.
- DeepSeek absorbed API price hikes of 2.3 to 4.5x with no reported customer attrition, confirming inelastic enterprise demand at current margin levels.
DeepSeek's annualized revenue run rate has crossed $1 billion, more than double the roughly $500 million reported a few months ago, The Information wrote. CEO Liang Wenfeng told investors the jump followed API price hikes of 2.3x to 4.5x last month.
Customers didn't walk. "Demand for services remained strong even after CEO Liang Wenfeng raised API prices between 2.3 and 4.5 times, helping the API business reach an 82.9% gross margin through July," per the reporting.
The Hangzhou lab is trying to close a Series B of roughly 50 billion yuan, about $7.5 billion, by the end of October, at a 500 billion yuan (~$75 billion) valuation. It has picked CITIC Securities as lead underwriter for a Shanghai STAR Market listing, Yahoo Finance reported, with a public debut targeted for 2027.
If it lists, DeepSeek "would become the most valuable pure AI company to list outside the United States."
The fundraise lands amid a steady drumbeat of DeepSeek coverage. China's Cyberspace Administration opened a probe into DeepSeek and Moonshot over Claude data routing just days ago.
What others are reporting
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Supplies explicit margin benchmarks against US peers: DeepSeek API at 82.9% vs. OpenAI 39% Q1 2026 and Anthropic projected 63% 2026, framing DeepSeek's efficiency in competitive terms.
The company generated roughly 475 million yuan (about $70.7 million) in revenue in the first seven months of this year, or about 10 times its revenue for all of last year.
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Adds per-token price comparison (Grok 4.6 costs roughly 7x DeepSeek V4 Pro) and confirms STAR Market listing specifics: CITIC Securities as underwriter, year-end 2026 filing target, 2027 debut.
Originally reported by theinformation.com
Read the original article →Original headline: DeepSeek Annualized Revenue Hits $1B, Aims to Close $7.5B Shanghai Fundraise by End of October