DeepSeek raises US$15 billion in challenge to leading US labs
DeepSeek has never had as much money as leading US AI companies, but that gap may now be getting smaller.
Published Thu, Oct 22, 2026 · 11:34 AM
- Sources say Tencent, the company behind WeChat, and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) are among the biggest investors in this funding round. PHOTO: REUTERS
[HONG KONG] Chinese AI company DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan (US$15 billion) in its latest funding round. This is one of the largest fundraising rounds ever in China. It also shows that the startup wants to compete worldwide with companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
DeepSeek, which is based in Hangzhou, raised its funding target at least twice while talking to investors. People familiar with the matter said the company first aimed to raise 50 billion yuan, then increased its target to 80 billion yuan before finally raising 100 billion yuan.
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, were among the biggest investors, the people said. They asked not to be named because the details have not been made public.
DeepSeek's new funding brings it closer to a possible stock market listing that many people are watching closely. In 2025, the AI startup helped trigger a US$1 trillion fall in global market value when it showed that it could compete with leading Silicon Valley companies while building AI models at a much lower cost. However, it has never had as much money as the leading US AI labs. The market sell-off in 2025 showed how much pressure DeepSeek could put on established technology companies.
The latest funding round suggests that the gap in financial resources is starting to narrow. Even so, DeepSeek still has much less money to spend than Anthropic and OpenAI, which have each raised more than US$100 billion.
Like its rival Moonshot, DeepSeek is getting ready for an initial public offering (IPO), which means selling shares to the public for the first time. Bloomberg News has reported that such a listing would be an important event for China's financial markets.
DeepSeek has started spending more money to build AI data centres and develop more open-source AI models for people to use in China and other countries. Open-source models let others access and use the technology.
The company has regularly released powerful AI models that cost less to use. These models have put pressure on competitors in China and attracted customers in the United States and other overseas markets.
For example, in September, DeepSeek released V4.1 Flash. The launch caused the share prices of local rivals MiniMax Group and Z.AI to fall.
DeepSeek, Tencent and CATL did not reply to requests for comment sent by email.
More generally, companies ranging from Alibaba to ByteDance have launched low-cost AI services. Many make their AI models open-source so customers can change them to meet their needs.
A widely shared chart from Artificial Analysis showed an area that people have called the “DeepSeek death zone”. The idea is that competing companies may struggle to survive if they cannot match DeepSeek's performance or offer lower prices. BLOOMBERG