Sources: DeepSeek is in talks to raise $3B to $4B led by China's national AI fund, valuing it at up to $50B; Tencent is also in talks to invest in DeepSeek
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage traces a rapid escalation in DeepSeek’s reported fundraising ambitions: April discussions with Tencent and Alibaba were framed around a $20B-plus valuation, while subsequent reports described a state-backed lead investor and progressively larger proposed rounds.
The reported national-fund participation matters because the round is not presented simply as a commercial financing. It coincides with DeepSeek’s stated infrastructure buildout and later reporting of IPO planning, placing this funding discussion within a broader push to scale the company into a major domestic AI platform.
First-order effects
DeepSeek could gain a large new capital base for infrastructure if the reported $3B–$4B round closes, while accepting a significant state-backed investor at a valuation of up to $50B.
Tencent’s reported participation would deepen its financial relationship with DeepSeek, but the talks themselves do not establish an investment or operating partnership.
Second-order effects
A state-backed lead and Tencent participation would raise the bar for rival Chinese AI companies seeking comparable funding, particularly those competing for infrastructure capacity and strategic investors.
The combination of large financing discussions and infrastructure plans would channel more capital toward the compute and deployment layers around leading domestic model developers, rather than only model research.
Third-order effects
If this pattern persists, China’s leading AI companies may increasingly be financed through a blend of state-backed capital and major platform investors, concentrating resources in a smaller group of nationally strategic developers.
That financing structure could make eventual public-market paths more central to the sector’s capital cycle; DeepSeek’s reported China IPO planning is an early indication, though both financing and listing plans remain unconfirmed.
The trend: Chinese AI funding is shifting toward larger, strategically backed rounds for companies able to pair model development with the infrastructure needed to scale deployment.
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng might be personally worth over $40 billion, which would make him one of the 10 richest people in China (if these estimates are correct).
deepseek's latest valuation is ~$40b+, and for context: zhipu at $50b, minimax at $30b. meanwhile, openai at $850b, anthropic at a wild $1t. because of capital market disadvantages, chinese ai labs are trading at a fraction of us ai companies. almost 30-50x cheaper..
Caveat: the Chinese firms are raising at like 3x the value to revenue as the US ones. Maybe makes sense but the OS business model is much less clear than for Ali or Huawei or Baidu, so some of these valuations are “govt linked investors maximizing something else than profits.”
China's state-backed national investment fund for semiconductors (Big Fund phase III) is in talks to invest in DeepSeek at $45 billion valuation. Would likely be via the $8.8 billion National AI Industry Investment Fund established early last year.👇
This makes sense. Takes care of valuation signaling, capital injection and natsec all at once and also with DeepSeek V4 optimization for Huawei chips, it is as much a semiconductor play / disruption as it is a model one 👀 But do you think it's fairly valued?
Scoop: DeepSeek nears $45bn valuation as China's ‘Big Fund’ leads investment talks * Valuation surges vs initial $20+bn * Liang could personally invest * Investors are betting on commercialisation potential ie strong coding despite lack of biz model https://www.ft.com/...
Wait, whoa, I didn't know! According to FT, Chen Deli holds ≈2.5% of DeepSeek! I missed it because I've never seen the «Chen Zhe» (陈哲 vs 陈德里) variant. This explains a lot, eg why he gets to vaguepost on XHS about the upcoming roleplay support, and speak for their policy. [image]
FT published this ownership diagram for DeepSeek, whose valuation is said to near $50B recent fundraising negotiations. I asked DS v4 who these people are: Based on the ownership structure diagram you shared, the four individuals—Liang Wenfeng, Chen Zhe, Li Huan, and Zheng [image…
id be surprised if tencent ends up investing. presumably theyre “still in talks” because they want to negotiate wenfeng's terms. lets see who budges first
FT: DeepSeek is in talks for its first fundraising round at a valuation of around $45 billion. FT: China's largest state-backed semiconductor investment fund, which has invested in YMTC and CXMT, is in talks to lead DeepSeek's fundraising round. [image]
Reasonable. DeepSeek is, fundamentally, a semiconductor project as well, most just don't see it yet. By the way, CXMT & YMTC were once put on Pentagon's Section 1260H (seem removed now). The problem will be utilizing this capital, because they sure ain't getting any Hoppers.