DeepSeek Raises 105.5 Billion Yuan in China's Largest AI Funding Round, With State-Backed Investors

Chinese AI company DeepSeek has closed a 105.5 billion yuan venture round — the largest in China's AI sector to date — with state-owned investors supplying 27% of the capital, according to a Dealroom.co summary of reporting from The Information, which cited two people with direct knowledge of the deal [1].

The round, described by The Information as DeepSeek's second-ever funding round, totaled 105.5 billion yuan (approximately $14.5 billion, as reported by The Information) from nearly 30 investors at a valuation of 615.5 billion yuan (approximately $84.6 billion). Dealroom's summary also converts the yuan amount at a different rate, yielding approximately $15.8 billion for the round, while the valuation conversion remains consistent at $84.6 billion. DeepSeek has not officially announced or confirmed the figures, according to the reporting [1][3].

Round doubled mid-process

The raise roughly doubled in size mid-process. The Information's sources said the increase was driven by two factors: black-market prices for Nvidia Blackwell servers rose sharply — an eight-B300 server climbed from about US$2.06 million to US$2.61 million — and the company wanted a war chest in case the AI investment bubble bursts [1].

Investor mix shifts toward state and strategic corporate backers

Tencent and battery maker CATL remain the two largest investors. New corporate backers include ChangXin Memory and its chairman Zhu Yiming, semiconductor foundry SMIC, and consumer-technology and industrial firms Vivo, Meituan, Midea, Luxshare, Geely, Ctrip and Xiaohongshu, each contributing between 1 billion and 3 billion yuan [1].

State-owned investors accounted for 27% of this round, up from 2% in DeepSeek's first round in April 2026. Checks of 2–8 billion yuan each came from China Mobile, China Telecom, CICC, Citic Securities and China Life; the National AI Development Fund invested another 1 billion yuan directly [1].

Across both rounds, technology companies represent 42% of capital, state-backed entities 19%, and venture capital and private equity the remainder. Among VC/PE firms, Monolith Management (led by former Sequoia China partner Cao Xi) wrote the largest checks; IDG Capital contributed 6.5 billion yuan across both rounds; Boyu Capital added 3.5 billion yuan in round two [1].

Strategic alignment with chip independence

The participation of ChangXin Memory and SMIC aligns with DeepSeek's compute needs under U.S. export controls. The company has reportedly trained its V4-series models using Huawei Ascend 910B and Cambricon MLU chips rather than Nvidia GPUs [3]. Adding domestic memory and foundry partners deepens that supply chain.

Governance and unknowns

In the first round, all investors except the National AI Development Fund invested through a Liang Wenfeng–owned entity, surrendering voting rights and accepting a five-year lock-up unless DeepSeek lists. The Information's reporting does not confirm whether round two preserved that structure, nor does it disclose Liang's remaining ownership [1].

No revenue, burn-rate or compute-spend figures have been disclosed, making it impossible to benchmark the 615.5 billion yuan valuation against Western peers such as OpenAI or Anthropic. The Information's reporting notes that the 27% state share "could reinforce suspicions" of government direction rather than proving it [1]. DeepSeek and the named investors have not commented.

Funding history and disclosure trail

DeepSeek had resisted outside capital until 2026, funding research through its parent hedge fund [3]. The Information's reporting identifies an initial round in April 2026 [1]. Reuters reported on October 6, 2026 that DeepSeek had raised approximately $7.4 billion in its first external funding round at a valuation near $74 billion [3]. Later reports in late October described a larger figure of roughly 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) with Tencent and CATL as major investors [3]. The terms surfaced indirectly when Chinese luggage manufacturer Anhui Korrun disclosed a stake held through a private-equity fund [3].

The implied size of the April round from Dealroom and The Information — total capital of approximately 136.5 billion yuan across both rounds minus the 105.5 billion yuan second round — is about 31 billion yuan (~$4.3 billion), which differs from the Reuters figure of $7.4 billion for the first external round. The discrepancy is not explained in the available reporting.