Bloomberg: DeepSeek set to raise $12 bln in new funding that bumps valuation by 50%

Chinese AI company DeepSeek is close to raising at least RMB80 billion ($12 billion) in its second funding round, sources told Bloomberg. That would far exceed the start-up’s own fundraising target and lift its valuation by almost 50%, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts calculate. DeepSeek plans to go public early next year.

DeepSeek initially sought to raise around RMB50 billion, but investor interest exceeded expectations after the successful release of the company’s latest AI model, V4 Flash, Bloomberg sources said. Based on term sheets already signed, the final amount could approach RMB100 billion, they added.

The round will lift the company’s valuation to at least RMB500 billion, or around $75 billion, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Robert Lea and Jasmine Lyu estimate. DeepSeek was valued at around RMB350 billion in its previous round in July.

Leading battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology, or CATL, and Tencent, the tech giant behind WeChat, will be among the largest investors, Bloomberg reports. The funding sets the stage for one of the most highly anticipated Chinese market debuts in years, Bloomberg notes. Once the round closes, the next step should be to restructure the company to prepare for an IPO, its sources said.

Although discussions around the deal are nearing completion, details may still change during final talks, the sources said. Representatives for CATL and Tencent declined to comment. DeepSeek did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.

DeepSeek has drawn enormous interest from prospective investors because it is one of the key players in China’s strategy to compete globally in AI, Bloomberg reports. The company is riding high after the release of its latest model, which reset expectations for cost versus performance against market leaders Anthropic and OpenAI. The start-up has forged a reputation as a tech innovator since unveiling a model in 2025 that matched the capabilities of Silicon Valley offerings at a fraction of the cost.

“DeepSeek’s historical aversion to external financing is shifting... This change of heart likely reflects the escalating costs of model development and token processing, which have forced the company to seek outside capital,” the Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote. However, they cautioned that it remains unclear how the start-up will balance shareholder demands for profit maximization against maintaining low prices to support Beijing’s plans for widespread AI adoption.

Like other AI players, DeepSeek needs vast amounts of capital to develop its technology. The company plans to deploy at least 160,000 of Huawei’s top accelerators at a massive new data center in Inner Mongolia. This could create one of the world’s largest clusters of Huawei AI chips. DeepSeek has also released open-source software developed with Huawei to program the chips, marking an important foray into a new arena in close partnership with the leading hardware maker, Bloomberg noted.

Moonshot AI, a peer that has developed the popular Kimi K3 model, closed its latest private funding round on Tuesday at a valuation of around $50 billion and is preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong in the first quarter of next year, Bloomberg sources say. The company could begin preliminary meetings with investors in October and is considering raising up to $5 billion.