AIMPACT message, May 9 (UTC+8): A key development has emerged in DeepSeek’s Series A funding round. The Information revealed that founder Liang Wenhong plans to personally invest up to RMB 20 billion, subscribing to approximately 40% of this round. This means he will replace the previously rumored leading state-backed fund and become the largest investor in this massive RMB 50 billion (USD 7.35 billion) funding round, with China’s National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund expected to step into second place. The post-money valuation has also risen from the previously rumored USD 45 billion to over USD 51.5 billion.
With the capital structure clarified, DeepSeek's commercialization efforts are now clearly defined:
1. V4.1 Core Update: Scheduled for June release, focusing on enhanced enterprise tools, native MCP (Model Context Protocol) support, and new image and audio understanding capabilities (generation remains text-only).
2. Compensation and Options Defense: New funds will be used to expand computing power, increase employee salaries, and issue stock options. This is a direct response to the real-world pressure of poaching by large tech companies—Luo Fuli, a core contributor to DeepSeek V3, has left for Xiaomi to lead its AI division, while another key researcher, Guo Daya, was lured away by ByteDance with a high salary.
Liang Wenhong shifted from "symbolic co-investment" to "writing the largest check,"最大限度 preserving his control over the company. But faced with soaring computational demands and the loss of core talent, DeepSeek ultimately had to abandon its purely research-oriented, revenue-free model and step in to solve its own cash flow problems.(Source: The Information)