DeepSeek set to net over $12 billion in new fundraising, source says

Oct 6 (Reuters) - Chinese AI ‌startup DeepSeek is ​set ​to raise more than 80 billion yuan ($11.93 billion) in its latest funding round, said one person with knowledge of the ‌matter, as the firm builds up a war chest of ⁠capital ahead of a domestic IPO.

DeepSeek kicked off the fundraising in July targeting a valuation ‌of 500 billion yuan ($74 billion), ‌a month after raising about $7.4 billion in its maiden external funding round, Reuters reported.

The second fundraising has drawn massive interest from existing and ​new investors and the capital committed exceeds DeepSeek's original target of 50 billion yuan, said the source.

DeepSeek is expected to wrap up ⁠the fundraising in October, said the person and a second source with knowledge of the matter. Both ​sources declined to be identified as the information was confidential.

DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for ​comment.

Bloomberg first reported on Tuesday that DeepSeek ‌is close to securing at least 80 billion yuan in the fundraising, whose final tally could reach 100 billion, ⁠citing sources.

Chinese battery maker CATL and Tencent Holdings have committed amounts that are among the largest in the current funding round, it added.

Tencent and CATL did ⁠not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

DeepSeek recently partnered with Huawei Technologies to ​develop programming tools optimised for the latter's Ascend AI chips, highlighting China's push to reduce reliance on Nvidia's AI ecosystem.

Last month, the company released its latest model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, ‌which it said was designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and scaling to larger models.

DeepSeek had hired ‌CITIC Securities to prepare for a potential STAR Market initial public offering, ⁠though the timing, valuation and ‌fundraising size remain undecided, ​Reuters reported last month.

($1=6.7045 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Hong Kong Newsroom and Abu Sultan in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and ‌Clarence Fernandez)

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