The DeepSeek $15 billion funding round reportedly secured about 100 billion yuan for the Chinese artificial intelligence developer, just two days after the U.S. published restrictions on its technology. Bloomberg reported the financing on Oct. 22, citing people familiar with the matter.
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL and technology giant Tencent, which operates WeChat, were among the largest investors. The reported financing is one of China’s biggest AI funding rounds and comes as DeepSeek increases spending on computing infrastructure and advanced AI models.
The announcement follows the Oct. 20 publication of a U.S. government order requiring federal civilian agencies to remove covered DeepSeek products from their systems. The federal restrictions cite national security and data privacy concerns.
DeepSeek Funding Builds on Earlier Investment
The latest round follows a June financing round that exceeded $7 billion at a valuation above $50 billion. In July, DeepSeek was reportedly seeking another $1.5 billion at a valuation near $71 billion, with plans for a potential Chinese stock market listing in 2027.
The Hangzhou-based company is expanding AI infrastructure and developing open-weight models for domestic and international markets. Its growing financial resources could intensify competition with Chinese rivals and established U.S. developers.
Investment in Chinese AI companies has also accelerated. Moonshot AI, developer of Kimi, raised $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May. Manus AI’s parent company secured more than $500 million earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Chinese AI developers Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) and MiniMax entered Hong Kong’s public markets in January, giving investors additional exposure to China’s AI industry.
Liang Wenfeng founded DeepSeek in 2023 and previously co-founded the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer. The startup attracted global attention in early 2025 with its low-cost, open-weight R1 reasoning model. An August WireScreen analysis estimated Liang’s economic interest in DeepSeek’s Chinese operating company at 81.6% before the latest reported financing.
