Founder Liang Wenfeng seeks new funding at $71B valuation

DeepSeek is discussing with investors and banks a listing in Shanghai and aims to file its IPO paperwork by the end of this year, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The timeline is subject to change and regulatory clearance, the people said.

Alongside the IPO preparations, Liang Wenfeng earlier this month began talking with prospective investors to raise more money in a new funding round, according to people familiar with the matter. Liang has sought to raise capital at a valuation of $71 billion or more, some of them said. Investor interest in DeepSeek is running high and the startup expects to pull in several billion dollars in the looming round, the people said.

However, Liang has been selective in choosing backers to ensure that commercial interests don’t interfere with DeepSeek’s long-term push in frontier AI research, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Last month, DeepSeek raised $7.4 billion in its maiden external funding round, where investors valued it at more than $50 billion. The round drew backing from a state fund focusing on AI as well as tech giant Tencent and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology. DeepSeek also announced a hiring push last month, seeking to double its workforce across core teams.

The IPO and fundraising efforts come as Chinese AI companies race to lock in capital to fund their costly research and data-center expansions. Anxiety has rippled through the country’s AI circles following the April debut of Anthropic’s Mythos system, according to the report. Industry executives and researchers said China’s AI industry risks stalling in its race with the U.S. unless it gets a further influx of capital.

Pitching investors in May, DeepSeek’s Liang said the startup could lose momentum if it lacks the funds to retain top talent and expand its computing infrastructure. Until recently, DeepSeek had largely relied on Liang’s personal wealth and capital from a hedge fund he co-founded.

“In the China context, we’re very underinvested in infrastructure and in the AI supply chain,” Joe Tsai, chairman of Chinese internet and AI giant Alibaba, said in June in Paris, according to the report.

Separately, TikTok parent ByteDance is in talks to borrow $20 billion in what could be its largest loan outside China as it ramps up AI spending, people familiar with the plan said. Beijing-based Zhipu AI recently raised $4 billion through a share sale following its January IPO; its market capitalization has since surged more than 10-fold to top $90 billion.

Chinese regulators have recently relaxed rules to allow AI startups to list on a Nasdaq-like market in Shanghai even if they aren’t profitable, according to the report.

DeepSeek didn’t respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg and the Financial Times earlier reported some details of DeepSeek’s fundraising plans.