Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has raised about $15 billion (roughly 100 billion yuan) in a second private financing round, one of the biggest funding rounds in China, Bloomberg reported. TechCrunch reported this on October 22, 2026.
Potential investors include Chinese battery maker CATL and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, according to the report; the round follows a June raise of more than $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation. The Wall Street Journal reported that prior to the latest round's close, DeepSeek was valued at around $74 billion; new backers include Stony Creek Capital, Legend Capital, and carmaker Geely, while Monolith Management and Shixiang added capital.
DeepSeek is accelerating its IPO timeline and aiming for a Shanghai listing early next year; it has hired state-owned Citic Securities as adviser and recruited former venture capitalist Yan Wentao as CFO in September.
The raise lands two days after the U.S. ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek's AI technology from their systems over security concerns; the Hangzhou startup is ramping spending on AI infrastructure and open models.
"Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has raised about $15 billion in a second private financing round, one of the biggest funding rounds in China" (Bloomberg).
