Markets & Business
DeepSeek reportedly in talks to raise $1.5B before IPO
DeepSeek is reportedly in talks to raise around $1.5 billion at about a $71 billion valuation before a 2027 IPO that could arrive as early as this year, per Bloomberg.
DeepSeek, the Chinese large language model developer, is reportedly in talks to raise around $1.5 billion in new funding at about a $71 billion valuation, Bloomberg reports, as the company also prepares for a 2027 IPO debut that could arrive as early as the end of this year. The news comes just a month after DeepSeek raised $7 billion at around a $50 billion valuation in its first-ever outside funding round.
Founded in 2023, the China-based startup made headlines in early 2025 after releasing AI technology that was both more efficient and more cost-effective than models from U.S. developers. It has since grown exponentially in popularity: in June, DeepSeek accounted for nearly 23% of all the tens of trillions of tokens processed by enterprise-focused AI gateway Vercel, the company reports — compared with Anthropic’s 32% share.
DeepSeek continues to show how Chinese open source models perform within a few breaths of top U.S. AI labs, despite U.S. export controls on chips. Its cloud service runs on chips made by Chinese company Huawei Technologies. Investors in DeepSeek include Tencent and Beijing’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, per Bloomberg.
Why it matters
It underscores how quickly Chinese AI labs are converting technical performance into capital-market ambitions, even as U.S. export controls aim to slow their access to advanced chips.