DeepSeek Just Raised $15 Billion From China's Corporate Giants to Take On OpenAI and Anthropic

The Chinese lab that rattled Silicon Valley last year with a cheap, capable model now has a war chest to match its ambitions. DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan, or roughly $15 billion, Bloomberg reported on October 22. That makes it one of the largest financing rounds in China's history.

The money comes from the companies that run much of China's economy. Tencent and battery maker CATL are among the biggest backers, joined by carmaker Geely, chipmaker GigaDevice, Meituan, Midea and NetEase. DeepSeek has not formally announced the deal, and DeepSeek, Tencent and CATL did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment.

Demand kept pushing the number up

DeepSeek did not set out to raise $15 billion. It lifted its target at least twice during talks, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan before settling at 100 billion.

The talks began in July and ran long because more investors kept asking in. It is the company's second private round. Existing shareholders Monolith Management and Shixiang added money, while new names include Stony Creek Capital, a semiconductor focused private equity firm, and Legend Capital, which is backed by Lenovo.

More than 15 investors are in, including Boyu Capital, CPE and IDG Capital, and the company was valued at about $74 billion, roughly 500 billion yuan, before the new money. Final terms could still change before the deal closes in the coming days.

That valuation is a big step up in a short time. DeepSeek's first outside round, in June, raised $7.4 billion at about $52 billion.

China Inc picks a champion

Look at who wrote the checks: a battery maker, a carmaker, a chipmaker, an appliance giant and the country's biggest internet platforms. "Given that they (the investors) are all Chinese and critical component supply chain vendors, I can see DeepSeek itself becoming a key part of these domestic tech supply chains," Omdia chief analyst Lian Jye Su said.

DeepSeek has already started spending on AI data centers and on open source models for use at home and abroad. It has also hired a finance chief, naming former venture capitalist Yan Wentao CFO in September. That same month, founder Liang Wenfeng told investors revenue was running at an annualized $1 billion, and the company released DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.

The gap with its American rivals is still enormous. Anthropic and OpenAI have each secured more than $100 billion in funding. But $15 billion buys DeepSeek a seat in a race that, until now, only a handful of US labs could afford.

A Shanghai listing on a fast track

The round also sets up a public debut. DeepSeek has sped up its IPO timeline and is aiming for Shanghai, with state owned Citic Securities hired as an adviser. It could list before both OpenAI and Chinese rival Moonshot AI, though it has not filed or set a date.

Public investors have been rough on Chinese AI lately. Hong Kong listed Z.AI and MiniMax have both fallen sharply from their peaks.

The problem money cannot fix

For all the national backing, DeepSeek still depends on American hardware. It trains its most demanding systems on Nvidia chips and is working with Huawei to move training onto Chinese made processors.

It also has a trust problem abroad. DeepSeek hopes the new money funds international expansion, but governments and regulators have stepped up scrutiny of its security and privacy policies. Some, including US agencies, have banned its technology from government devices, as when the Department of Homeland Security barred DeepSeek across federal agencies.

So China's corporate giants have handed one startup the money to fight OpenAI and Anthropic at home. Winning customers in the countries banning its apps is a harder fight.

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