TL;DRDeepSeek halted its second fundraising round after leaked comments from founder Liang Wenfeng about Nvidia reliance went viral
DeepSeek has suspended its second fundraising round after comments made by founder Liang Wenfeng during private investor meetings were leaked and went viral on Chinese social media, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Liang verbally informed prospective backers to hold off on the round, which had been targeting a pre-money valuation of roughly 480 billion yuan, equivalent to about $71 billion. The pause came after Liang expressed frustration that his candid remarks about China’s dependence on Nvidia chips and the country’s AI gap with the United States had been shared publicly without his permission.
The company closed its first funding round in June, raising roughly $7 billion from investors including Tencent, battery giant CATL, and China’s National AI Industry Investment Fund. That round valued the Hangzhou-based startup at between $50 billion and $52 billion, making it one of the most valuable AI companies in the world. DeepSeek has also been designing its own AI chip in an effort to reduce its reliance on Nvidia hardware, which is subject to US export restrictions that have limited Chinese access to the most advanced processors.
