Chinese AI firm DeepSeek taps underwriters including Citic Securities for IPO: sources

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek is preparing for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) by enlisting underwriters, including Citic Securities, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Hangzhou-based company aims to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-like Star market in 2023. Citic Securities is among four underwriters chosen by DeepSeek, although the firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The company is also in the process of completing a pre-IPO financing round, which could value it at approximately 500 billion yuan (US$74 billion) before investment. DeepSeek is joining forces with Beijing-based Moonshot AI, which filed last week for a Hong Kong IPO, with plans to raise between US$3 billion and US$5 billion. Both firms are following the lead of Z.ai and Shanghai-based MiniMax, which went public in Hong Kong earlier in the year and raised around US$50 billion and US$54 billion, respectively.

DeepSeek's push for an IPO and funding aligns with a hiring and infrastructure expansion, as the company recently announced an "unprecedented" recruitment drive to address strained back-end systems due to surging user demand, alongside discussions with local data centers to increase computing capacity.