Bloomberg says DeepSeek has completed about 100 billion yuan in financing, with CATL and Tencent participating
According to Bloomberg, DeepSeek raised about 100 billion yuan (approximately $15 billion) in its latest funding round, with CATL and Tencent among the largest investors in this round. People familiar with the matter said the financing target was raised twice, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan and then to 100 billion yuan, and the funds will be used for AI data center construction and open-source model development, as well as preparations for an IPO on the STAR Market. Previously, DeepSeek open-sourced DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on October 17, and open-sourced the inference framework DeepInfer and the production-grade token codec component deepseek-recipe on October 20.
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Beyond the financing size and investor information, the original article also ties together DeepSeek's IPO preparations and recent open-source moves, making it easier to judge its funding and product rhythm.
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Zhihidongxi October 22 news: Just now, according to Bloomberg, DeepSeek has raised approximately 100 billion yuan (about 15 billion US dollars) in its latest funding round, setting the record for the largest financing in China's AI industry, with CATL and Tencent among the largest investors in this round.
According to people familiar with the matter, DeepSeek raised its financing target at least twice while engaging with investors, initially targeting 50 billion yuan, then raising it to 80 billion yuan, and finally reaching 100 billion yuan. Because the relevant details have not yet been made public, the people familiar with the matter requested anonymity.
Bloomberg said that DeepSeek has begun to increase investment, advancing the construction of AI data center infrastructure and developing more open-source models for the Chinese and overseas markets.
This round of financing will provide the funding basis for DeepSeek to prepare for an IPO. DeepSeek is also using it to narrow the funding gap with top US AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. On September 9, according to Reuters, DeepSeek had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market.
According to Bloomberg, Moonshot AI is advancing an IPO in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2027. DeepSeek's listing may become an important milestone in China's capital market.
Over the past period, DeepSeek has continued to launch high-performance, low-cost models, attracting attention from developers at home and abroad and winning customers in overseas markets such as the United States.
On October 17, DeepSeek released and open-sourced DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. In the DeepSWE v1.1 test of software engineering capabilities, its score exceeded models such as GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, and Claude Opus 5, and the average cost per single task dropped by about 60% compared with the previous version.
On October 20, DeepSeek also open-sourced its internally used large-scale cloud service inference framework DeepInfer and the production-grade token codec component deepseek-recipe, and released a detailed technical report introducing the overall architecture and key implementations of the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash inference system.
DeepSeek continues to promote the opening of models, frameworks, and tools, embarking on a development path different from the closed-source commercialization route of some overseas top AI labs.
As DeepSeek obtains large-scale financing, the funding and computing power investment of China's top AI companies are entering a new stage. Whether DeepSeek can rely on this round of financing to continue expanding its advantages in model performance, infrastructure, and overseas commercialization remains to be verified by its subsequent products and IPO progress.
Source: Bloomberg, Reuters