Chinese AI developer DeepSeek has begun preparations for an IPO next year — Bloomberg
In 2025, DeepSeek triggered a sell-off in the stock markets by releasing a low-cost AI model
A Chinese AI startup is preparing its financial statements by the end of December in order to file for an IPO / Photo: Erlin Diah / Shutterstock.com
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence developer, has begun preparations for an initial public offering on a stock exchange in mainland China and may file for the offering as early as this year, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. The agency believes the company’s IPO could be a landmark event for China’s technology sector.
DeepSeek is working with auditing firms to finalize its financial statements by the end of December—a prerequisite for filing an IPO application, one of the agency’s sources said. The company plans to submit the documents to the regulator toward the end of this year or in early 2027—depending on when the financial statements are ready.
Ahead of its IPO, DeepSeek also plans to raise additional private funding—just a few weeks after closing a record-breaking $7 billion funding round, sources told the agency. The company has already begun negotiations with new investors regarding the next round, in which it expects to secure a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan ($71 billion). During its first round of external financing in early June, the company was valued at $50 billion. Major investors such as Tencent Holdings and Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) participated in the round.
DeepSeek expects to raise at least 10 billion yuan in additional funding. However, the final amount could be several times higher, depending on the number of investors who join the round, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 and is owned by the hedge fund Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management. The startup has attracted enormous interest from potential investors, as it is among the companies at the center of China’s efforts to strengthen the country’s position in the global AI race, according to Bloomberg.
Last year, DeepSeek developed the R1 model, which took the industry by storm: the company demonstrated that it could create a cutting-edge yet efficient platform using fewer computational resources. This led to a drop in the stock prices of U.S. chipmakers, as investors began to question the need for hyperscalers to spend so much on AI.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
