DeepSeek to raise at least $12 billion in Tencent-backed funding, Bloomberg News reports

DeepSeek is on the verge of securing around 80 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in its latest funding round, surpassing its own capital-raising goal before its planned IPO in early 2027. Investors Tencent and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology have committed some of the largest amounts in the financing. DeepSeek had initially aimed for a 50 billion yuan valuation, but interest surpassed expectations following the successful release of its latest AI model.

With term sheets signed, the total funding could reach up to 100 billion yuan. The company's funding marks one of the most anticipated Chinese market debuts in years, riding high after the V4 Flash's release, which challenged the performance-to-cost ratio against leaders like Anthropic and OpenAI. Founder Liang Wenfeng's startup has been known for technical breakthroughs since a 2025 model that matched Silicon Valley offerings at a lower cost.

DeepSeek plans to utilize at least 160,000 Huawei accelerators at a massive data center in Inner Mongolia to build one of the largest clusters of Huawei AI chips. Liang has committed to developing open AI models while pursuing artificial general intelligence. The company aims to prepare for an IPO post-funding, with Tencent aiming to integrate AI into its platforms and CATL possibly supplying components for data centers.

However, the capital-raising process has been controversial, with DeepSeek briefly suspending the deal after Liang made comments about US-Chinese AI competition.