DeepSeek Secures Massive Funding Round Amid U.S. Security Ban
The AI lab secured a multi-billion dollar investment just days after Washington ordered its tech removed from federal systems.
By James Brooks ·
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence lab based in Hangzhou, has raised approximately 15 billion dollars, or about 100 billion yuan, in new funding. The capital raise comes just two days after U.S. authorities directed federal civilian agencies to strip DeepSeek technology from their systems. Bloomberg reported the details of the transaction, noting that it ranks as one of the largest funding rounds in the country.
Potential investors in the round include battery manufacturer CATL and Tencent, the parent company of the WeChat messaging app. This latest injection of capital follows a previous round in June, where the company secured over 7 billion dollars at a valuation of 50 billion dollars. DeepSeek reportedly sought an additional 1.5 billion dollars in July at a valuation of approximately 71 billion dollars. The company has also indicated plans for a potential public listing in China as early as next year.
The startup is spending heavily to build out AI infrastructure and develop open models for markets inside and outside China. This expansion could intensify the race for dominance among domestic rivals. The funding round signals that investors continue to pour billions into artificial intelligence companies worldwide, including those based in China, as they compete in the global AI race. Moonshot AI, the developer of Kimi, secured 2 billion dollars in May at a valuation of 20 billion dollars. Manus AI raised more than 500 million dollars earlier this month. Chinese firms Zhipu AI and MiniMax, which listed in Hong Kong in January, hold market capitalizations of roughly 29 billion and 7.2 billion dollars respectively.
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng. Liang previously co-founded High-Flyer, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund that helped finance DeepSeek's early development. The AI startup drew global attention in early 2025 with its free-to-use, open-weight R1 reasoning model. That release challenged the dominance of U.S. AI companies. Following earlier funding rounds, Liang retains an estimated 81.6% stake in its Chinese operating entity, according to corporate ownership data analyzed by WireScreen. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
