DeepSeek weighs upsizing new funding round to as much as $15B ahead of 2027 IPO
DeepSeek is considering raising its latest funding round from an original target of about 50 billion yuan to at least 80 billion yuan, with signed term sheets pointing to a final total approaching 100 billion yuan, according to CNBC and Bloomberg; CNBC put the figure at as much as $14.9 billion. Tencent and CATL are the investors committing the largest amounts, and DeepSeek and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment, with terms still subject to change. The round is seen as paving the way for a potential IPO in early 2027, after a roughly 51 billion yuan first external round closed in June.
If completed, it would rank among the year's largest AI fundraises, funding DeepSeek's increasingly capital-heavy compute buildout and IPO plans while tying China's leading AI lab closer to industrial capital.