Article by Timelines, Author | Wang Zhi, Editor | Zhou Yi
DeepSeek's seed funding round has received new updates.
On June 16, according to the latest report by foreign media The Information, DeepSeek has raised over RMB 50 billion, pushing its valuation beyond $50 billion.
It should be noted that, as of now, the above reports from foreign media have not been officially confirmed by DeepSeek or its related investors. However, based on the current developments, DeepSeek’s this funding round appears to be nearing finalization.
DeepSeek’s current funding round began in April 2026 and has now been ongoing for two months—marking the first time since its founding that DeepSeek has opened itself to external investment. Previously, for a long period since its establishment, DeepSeek had consistently adhered to principles such as “no fundraising, no IPO, no commercialization.”
Against this backdrop, DeepSeek’s latest funding round has attracted significant attention both within China’s AI sector and globally—in a context where numerous investors are eager to participate, DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenheng, set extremely high investment thresholds, adding further intrigue to this funding round.
Here are the 7 key questions to pay attention to in this funding round.
1. How was the overall situation of this round of financing for DeepSeek?
According to foreign media reports, DeepSeek’s current funding round exceeded RMB 50 billion, with founder Liang Wenhong investing RMB 20 billion personally, and other investors including Tencent, CATL, JD.com, NetEase, and IDG Capital.
With the completion of this funding round, DeepSeek's valuation has surpassed $50 billion.
Notably, DeepSeek officially launched this funding round in April 2026, with an initial valuation of approximately $10 billion. However, within the following two months, DeepSeek’s valuation multiplied several times over, making this round the largest funding round to date in China’s large model sector.
2. What is special about this funding round?
In practice, DeepSeek adopted a special approach in this funding round.
According to foreign media reports, in this funding round, most investors are required to channel their funds into a limited partnership controlled by DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenhong, rather than investing directly into DeepSeek itself—while also being subject to a five-year lock-up period.
Under this structure, these investors do not have voting rights in DeepSeek but are entitled to priority access to financial information and preferential rights to invest in future financing rounds.
Meanwhile, according to foreign media reports, among all investors, the sole exception is the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, which can directly invest in DeepSeek with an investment of 1 billion yuan, holds voting rights in the company, and is not subject to any lock-up period.
3. Why is this financing arrangement necessary?
From the current situation, the primary reason for this special arrangement is to ensure Liang Wenheng's absolute control over DeepSeek.
After all, based on past information, Liang Wenheng is widely recognized as a staunch technological idealist; his original motivation for founding DeepSeek was to achieve artificial general intelligence and make it accessible to the general public.
According to media reports, at a previous investor meeting, Liang Wenfeng clearly stated that the company will continue advancing open-source AI models with the goal of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI); DeepSeek’s current top priority is to continuously push the boundaries of technology by prioritizing breakthrough AI research over profitability and short-term commercialization.
Beyond this original mission, Liang Wenheng set strict terms for this funding round, including a five-year equity lock-up period, to ensure that all investors are patient capital with strategic endurance and no interest in short-term exits.
4. Why was Tencent able to participate in this round of financing?
For Tencent, investing in DeepSeek is itself an investment action that far exceeds financial considerations; it is a clear strategic investment.
From Tencent’s perspective, it was one of the earliest adopters of DeepSeek. When DeepSeek gained widespread attention in February 2025, Tencent was among the first to integrate support for DeepSeek into its Yuanbao app, reflecting a strong and deep business synergy between the two companies.
With this round of financing, this business synergy has a strong chance of continuing in the future development of both parties' artificial intelligence initiatives.
From another perspective, Tencent’s entry into this space is also related to its long-standing investment approach. Over years of investment practice, Tencent has typically provided multifaceted support to its portfolio companies without actively intervening, and has generally demonstrated considerable patience—factors that may be key to Tencent’s involvement.
5. What is the core rationale behind CATL's investment in DeepSeek?
For DeepSeek, large-scale training compute power is undoubtedly a critical technological enabler in advancing AI toward AGI, and compute power itself is primarily supported in the physical world through data centers—especially AI data centers with massive power consumption.
The data center is precisely the major point of strategic and business alignment between DeepSeek and CATL.
Among these, the energy storage segment related to AI data centers is precisely the area where CATL is currently focusing its efforts and represents its new growth curve.
It is worth noting that, during a previous public interview discussing AI, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun said:
In the AI field, we view AI as a tool overall, rather than competing with AI companies within the AI domain. But AI consumes energy, and ultimately, your AIDC (Artificial Intelligence Data Center) and your token are forms of energy.
Therefore, Zeng Yuxun emphasized that CATL hopes to contribute to AIDC’s energy solutions—this is also a core alignment point for CATL’s participation in DeepSeek’s current funding round.
6. What does the entry of state-backed investors mean for this funding round?
A key point to note in DeepSeek’s this funding round is the participation of state-backed investors.
Previously in May, the Financial Times reported that the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund was negotiating to lead DeepSeek’s first funding round. However, according to The Information’s latest report on June 16, the state-backed investment entity is the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.
Therefore, how exactly the state-backed entities entered the market remains unclear.
However, it is confirmed that under the current market conditions, DeepSeek’s competitiveness in the AI field has extended beyond technology alone—and from a compute compatibility perspective, eight domestic AI chip manufacturers, including Huawei Ascend, Cambricon, Moxi Tech, and Moore Threads, have all completed full adaptation of DeepSeek-V4.
It is worth noting that, according to a person familiar with the matter, this funding round includes a special clause: Liang Wenfeng’s team requires verification of the true identities of all limited partners behind the investing funds, to mitigate the risk of equity ultimately flowing to unknown entities—the logic behind this is self-evident.
7. How will DeepSeek develop after this round of funding?
On one hand, from a product perspective, DeepSeek has the opportunity to release new model versions in the future, providing enterprise users with additional tools and supporting the industry-standard MCP protocol, including enhanced support for images and audio. To some extent, this is also aimed at better commercialization.
On the other hand, DeepSeek is naturally increasing investment in infrastructure, talent acquisition, and model training. Based on the latest publicly available updates, DeepSeek has already launched a talent recruitment initiative for its data center in Inner Mongolia—with compensation levels that are notably competitive—demonstrating that its goal of building its own data center is beginning to take shape.
In the long term, DeepSeek’s goal is to achieve AGI—a lengthy journey that still requires substantial investment in funding, talent, and more. For Liang Wenhong, the challenge lies in balancing the company’s technological advancement and commitment to accessibility with the expectations of investors seeking commercialization and reasonable returns.
In a sense, DeepSeek’s seed funding is merely the beginning of this journey.