DeepSeek considers raising its pre-IPO round from $7.4B to as much as $15B (report)

What happened

According to AI Times, citing Reuters and CNBC, DeepSeek is discussing raising $12 billion to $15 billion in its pre-IPO funding round, more than the original target of $7.4 billion. CATL and Tencent are participating as the largest investors, and Geely and the investment firm Monolith are also mentioned.

Why it matters

Investor demand for China's leading open-weight model developer has pushed the funding target up to as much as double. If finalized, it could affect its compute acquisition and the pace of next-generation model development. Reports say this is still at the discussion stage.

Sources

• Press 딥시크, 투자 수요 폭발…IPO 전 자금 조달 규모 2배 확대 AI Times (Korea)