Chinese frontier artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek is in talks with investors to raise a new financing round at around US$70 billion pre-investment valuation, shortly after closing a landmark first round, reflecting unquenched investor enthusiasm for the company.The plan comes on the heels of the Chinese AI darling’s recently closed Series A funding round in June – its first external funding round – which brought in about US$7 billion and valued the Hangzhou-based firm at nearly US$60 billion, according to sources cited in a South China Morning Post report earlier.DeepSeek launched the new round shortly after closing the landmark deal because the first round was limited to a few selected backers, leaving other investors eager to support a national AI champion and still seeking ways to get involved, one of the sources said.The previous round was backed by Chinese tech giants, including Tencent Holdings, NetEase and JD.com.Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd, also known as CATL, the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery maker, also joined, alongside venture capital firms including Monolith, Loyal Valley Capital and Shixiang.Another source added that the fundraising talks remained at a preliminary stage and the valuation could change. The sources requested anonymity as they were discussing private information.