[Unconfirmed] DeepSeek Prepping New Funding Round Ahead of Next Yea...

[Unconfirmed] DeepSeek Prepping New Funding Round Ahead of Next Year's IPO, Led by Tencent and CATL

Bloomberg reports that DeepSeek is preparing to raise at least 80 billion yuan (~$11.2B) in its latest funding round — likely its final round before a planned IPO in early 2027. Lead investors named include Tencent, already a major DeepSeek backer, and CATL, the Chinese EV battery giant.

The reported figure is notably higher than DeepSeek's initial 50 billion yuan (~$7B) target — a jump attributed to strong investor demand following the company's recent run of successful AI model releases, with the final raise potentially reaching as high as 100 billion yuan (~$14B).