The unusual precondition underscores how the contest among Chinese tech giants to build advanced AI has tipped into open competition for engineers.

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek secured over $7 billion in its first funding round, utilizing an unconventional deal structure, according to sources cited by The Information.

While Silicon Valley bets billions on frontier models and AGI, China is industrializing AI from the ground up.

DeepSeek closed its first-ever outside funding round at $7.4 billion, but the deal's structure means that for the most part, only one investor actually gets a say.

Investors have valued Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek at more than $50 billion in the company's first fundraising round, reports said.

Liang remains committed to pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI) – a vision he reinforced to investors repeatedly last month.

The unusual precondition underscores how the contest among Chinese tech giants to build advanced AI has tipped into open competition for engineers.