DeepSeek Seeks Funding Exceeding 80 Billion CNY

DeepSeek is pursuing a new round of financing intended to raise more than 80,000,000,000 CNY.

Reuters reported the story by citing people familiar with the matter on October 6. The funding round is expected to be completed in October. When the company initiated this process in July, the target amount was 50,000,000,000 CNY, with discussions regarding a valuation of 500,000,000,000 CNY.

Bloomberg previously stated that Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited are among the institutions that have made significant investment commitments. DeepSeek has not yet publicly confirmed the scale of the financing or the arrangements for investors.

This effort follows a period of only a few months since the company first brought in external capital. Reuters stated that the company completed approximately 7.4 billion dollars in financing in June of this year. If the current round is finished at the discussed scale, DeepSeek will have secured two consecutive funding rounds valued in the tens of billions.

In other industry developments, the parent company of Kimi, Moonshot AI, reportedly completed its final private placement round before listing, reaching a valuation of approximately 50 billion dollars. Moonshot AI is seeking to list in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2027 and is considering raising up to 5 billion dollars through an initial public offering. The company is preparing early meetings with potential investors starting as early as October to gauge market interest. The specific amount for the recent private placement has not been disclosed, and the timing of the listing may still be adjusted.

Additionally, Tencent reportedly signed a five-year lease with Oracle for multiple data centers in Southeast Asia. The agreement involves computing power provided by approximately 100,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips. One source estimated the total value of the deal at approximately 7 billion dollars, with a down payment accounting for about 30 percent. Neither Tencent nor Oracle responded to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has made commitments to its users. Tibo from OpenAI promised Codex and ChatGPT Work users that for the next 28 days, the company will either launch an improvement of obvious value every day or reset usage quotas. This follows statements that the team is focusing on simplifying operations, increasing efficiency, and developing new models and functions.

Reported by cnBeta.