China's DeepSeek reportedly raises $7.4B in funding at $50B+ valuation - SiliconANGLE

China’s DeepSeek reportedly raises $7.4B in funding at $50B+ valuation

Chinese artificial intelligence lab DeepSeek has reportedly raised more than 50 billion yuan, or $7.4 billion, in new funding.

The Information and the Wall Street Journal today cited sources as saying that the company is now worth over $50 billion. That reportedly makes it China’s most valuable AI startup.

DeepSeek founder and Chief Executive Officer Liang Wenfeng reportedly contributed $3 billion to the raise. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Tencent Holdings Ltd was considering investing about $1.48 billion. Most of the participants in the round reportedly deposited the capital into a limited partnership managed by Liang.

DeepSeek, officially Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co. Ltd., is a subsidiary of a hedge fund called High-Flyer. The AI lab rose to prominence in January 2025 when it open-sourced an advanced reasoning model known as R1. The launch sparked a broad selloff in chip stocks that briefly reduced Nvidia Corp.’s market capitalization by 15% at the time.