The Chinese AI start-up is preparing to go public with plans to list as early as this year.
DeepSeek has reportedly paused its second funding round after comments associated with founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng talking to investors about the US-China AI rivalry went viral.
The Chinese AI start-up verbally informed some of its potential investors that the round wouldn’t be going through as expected, Bloomberg reported. The company, though, could still choose to resume the round later.
DeepSeek CEO Wenfeng suspended the round after reports began circulating online over comments he had allegedly made to investors during the start-up’s first funding round, which raised more than $7.4bn, as per the announcement in June.
DeepSeek was aiming to raise at least 10bn yuan in funds in the new deal at a pre-money valuation of at least 480bn yuan (roughly $70bn).
