DeepSeek's Valuation Could Exceed $10B, Plans to Raise Over $7B in Funding

According to The Information, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is planning a fundraising round of over $7 billion, which, if completed, would become the largest single round of financing for an AI company in history.

The founder and CEO, Liang Wenfeng, has begun planning this financing round, while the company is also actively laying out its commercialization revenue. The early valuation negotiation range for this round of financing is around $84 billion, with the final valuation potentially exceeding $100 billion.

The fund under Quantitative Phantom is expected to subscribe to about 60% of the shares, and China Investment Corporation (CIC) is likely to become the second-largest investor.

In terms of commercialization, DeepSeek plans to release an upgraded version of the V4 model, V4.1, around June. This model will no longer be provided for free in an open-source format, but will be available for paid use via API, and will enhance the capabilities of image and video generation. The company is cooperating with major Chinese technology firms and development teams to expand B-end application scenarios.

Liang Wenfeng controls approximately 85% of the equity in DeepSeek through Quantitative Phantom, with a personal net worth of about $11.1 billion. This round of financing signifies that the company is shifting from relying on internal funding to introducing external capital, in order to support large-scale computing power investment and talent expansion.

DeepSeek has caused a stir in the global AI industry with its high cost-performance ratio models, and its website remains one of the most visited AI chat tools globally. If this substantial round of financing materializes, it will further intensify the competitive landscape in the global AI sector.