DeepSeek pauses $10B fundraising after founder's viral comments

DeepSeek, founded in 2023 and owned by hedge fund Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, has told prospective investors in its second fundraising round that it is suspending the deal for now, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese AI pioneer verbally informed some would-be backers that they wouldn't be signing investment agreements in the coming days as expected. DeepSeek may choose to resume the deal process at a later date, the people said.

The suspension stemmed in part from founder Liang Wenfeng's frustration over online reports about his comments to investors during his first financing deal. That round closed in June and raised $7 billion（約1.1兆円） for the AI lab, with backing from major names including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., and the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund. The viral posts concerned a transcript of a meeting Liang held, in which he discussed China's reliance on Nvidia Corp. chips for AI development and China's persistent lag in AI sophistication relative to the US. Bloomberg has not verified the authenticity of those posts, and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the transcript or the fundraising.

The startup was aiming to raise at least 10 billion yuan of additional funds in the follow-on deal, though the final amount could go higher depending on the number of investors that sign on. DeepSeek had been targeting a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan—an increase from the roughly $50 billion（約8兆円） price tag the company drew in its first round. Beyond the second fundraising, DeepSeek has begun preparations for an initial public offering and may file as soon as this year, setting the stage for what could be a landmark debut for China's technology industry.

DeepSeek has drawn enormous investor interest because it sits at the heart of China's effort to compete globally on AI. The company developed a model last year that stunned the industry, demonstrating the ability to build a cutting-edge yet efficient platform with fewer computing resources than competitors—a breakthrough that showed Chinese companies could compete with the best of Silicon Valley despite US export restrictions on advanced hardware. The startup is now chasing more funds to support an ambitious expansion plan, including an increase in computing capacity, as AI labs around the world strike deals to secure the data center infrastructure they need to train and operate AI services. DeepSeek's senior management has told potential investors that the startup will prioritize groundbreaking AI research over short-term commercialization, with Liang pledging in at least one meeting with investors to keep developing open-source AI models while pursuing the broader goal of achieving artificial general intelligence. Liang's net worth more than doubled after the firm's most recent fundraising round, reaching $36 billion（約5.8兆円） according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index—up from about $16.7 billion（約2.7兆円） previously—making the Chinese entrepreneur the world's richest creator of AI models, well above Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Greg Brockman.

DeepSeek's fundraising pause reflects a critical inflection point for the Chinese AI startup. The company closed a record $7 billion（約1.1兆円） first-round in June backed by major names including Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., and was expected to move quickly into a second round. However, the viral spread of founder Liang Wenfeng's comments about China's technological dependencies and competitive position has created friction—not with investors themselves, but with Liang's appetite for public scrutiny of sensitive geopolitical statements. This suggests that as DeepSeek scales and prepares for an IPO filing as soon as this year, the company faces a tension between the open discourse expected in fundraising and the strategic sensitivity of public comments on US–China AI competition.

The timing is significant because DeepSeek has also announced preparations for a public offering, a milestone that would represent a landmark debut for China's technology industry. The startup is chasing additional capital to fund computing capacity expansion—infrastructure critical for training and operating AI services—and was targeting at least 10 billion yuan at a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan. That valuation represents a major step up from its $50 billion（約8兆円） price tag in the first round, reflecting investor confidence in the company's technical breakthrough. Whether the pause is tactical (allowing time for communications strategy to settle) or signals deeper concerns about disclosure remains unclear, but the fact that negotiations remain fluid suggests the company has not ruled out resuming the deal process.

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