DeepSeek prepares for IPO filing as soon as 2026, eyes US$71 billion valuation: FT

[BEIJING] Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer DeepSeek is considering raising more funds weeks after closing a US$7 billion round of financing, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing people with knowledge of the deal.

The startup began talks this week with potential backers for a fresh funding round targeting a pre-money valuation of US$71 billion, the FT said.

That is a big leap from the roughly US$50 billion valuation that DeepSeek scored in its first round of external financing, which closed in early June with big names including Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology.

DeepSeek has been at the heart of China’s effort to compete globally on AI.

It developed a model in 2025 that stunned the tech world, demonstrating the ability to build a cutting-edge yet more efficient platform with fewer computing resources.

The breakthrough demonstrated that Chinese companies could compete with the best of Silicon Valley despite US export restrictions on advanced hardware.

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The startup is now chasing more funds to support an ambitious expansion plan, including an increase in computing capacity. AI labs around the world are striking deals to secure the data centre infrastructure they need to train and operate AI services.

DeepSeek’s senior management has told potential investors that the startup will prioritise groundbreaking AI research over short-term commercialisation, Bloomberg News has reported.

Founder Liang Wenfeng pledged in at least one meeting with investors to keep developing open-source AI models while pursuing the broader goal of achieving artificial general intelligence, underscoring the company’s focus on advancing the frontiers of AI rather than monetisation.

Liang’s net worth more than doubled after his firm’s most recent fundraising round, making the Chinese entrepreneur the world’s richest among creators of AI models.

He’s now worth US$36 billion, up from about US$16.7 billion previously, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That ranks him well above Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman. BLOOMBERG