DeepSeek in Advanced Talks for First Outside Funding at $45–$50 Billion Valuation

Overview

• Multiple outlets report DeepSeek is negotiating its first external round near a $45 billion valuation, with China’s Big Fund discussed as lead and Tencent and Alibaba in talks to join.
• Some reports cite a valuation closer to $50 billion and potential involvement from the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, and none of the parties have confirmed terms.
• Founder Liang Wenfeng controls nearly 90% of the company and began seeking capital to offer employee equity after rivals tried to hire away researchers, according to the Financial Times.
• DeepSeek’s core models are open-weight and the team has tuned them for Huawei chips to ease reliance on Nvidia and other foreign suppliers.
• If the deal closes, coverage says the money would boost computing capacity, speed hiring, and strengthen work with Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud, which could raise price and performance pressure on U.S. labs.