DeepSeek is close to raising at least 80 billion yuan ($11.9 billion) in its latest funding round, as the Chinese AI firm prepares for a potential initial public offering early next year, according to Bloomberg.
Chinese tech giant Tencent and battery pioneer Contemporary Amperex are reportedly among the largest investors in the round, which is expected to close soon, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
DeepSeek initially sought to raise about 50 billion yuan ($7.5 billion), but strong investor demand pushed the expected size of the round higher, with the final tally potentially approaching 100 billion yuan ($14.9 billion), according to the report.
The Latent has reached out to DeepSeek for further information.
DeepSeek's fundraising comes as Beijing pushes to build domestic alternatives to advanced U.S. technology.
Last week, DeepSeek released software it developed with Huawei to program Huawei's Ascend chips. In an announcement on its official WeChat account, DeepSeek said the tools include the TileLang high-level programming language, compute libraries, and distributed communication libraries.
At the same time, DeepSeek is facing mounting scrutiny at home and abroad. Chinese regulators are reportedly investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot, another Chinese AI lab, for potential data leaks to Anthropic.
The Information reported last month that the Cyberspace Administration of China has summoned representatives from seven Chinese AI companies named in an Anthropic report - DeepSeek, Moonshot, Alibaba, Z.ai, SenseTime, MiniMax, and Xiaomi.
Meanwhile, Moonshot has completed its final private funding round at a valuation of roughly $50 billion ahead of a planned IPO in Hong Kong early next year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.