DeepSeek raises about $15 billion in one of China's biggest funding rounds, Bloomberg reports

DeepSeek, the Hangzhou-based Chinese AI lab, has raised about 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) in its latest funding round, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 22, citing people familiar with the matter. It is one of the largest funding rounds ever in China.

The round grew as talks went on

DeepSeek raised its financing target at least twice while talking with investors, from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan before reaching the final total, according to Bloomberg. Battery maker CATL and WeChat operator Tencent were among the biggest investors. DeepSeek, Tencent and CATL did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment.

An IPO could be next

DeepSeek is preparing for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported, and The Wall Street Journal described the raise as coming ahead of a planned Shanghai listing. In June, DeepSeek raised more than $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation, TechCrunch reported.

Spending on data centers and open models

The company has begun spending more aggressively to build AI data centers and develop open-source models for China and overseas, according to Bloomberg. Even after this round, it has far less money than Anthropic and OpenAI, which have each raised more than $100 billion.

The raise follows new U.S. restrictions

The funding was reported two days after the Department of Homeland Security ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their systems and stop new purchases, citing security concerns.