Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is close to finalizing a roughly $7.4 billion (50 billion yuan) funding round that would value the company at around $74 billion pre-money, according to people familiar with the matter. The round is expected to close by the end of August 2026, pushing DeepSeek's post-money valuation to roughly $81 billion.
Existing backers Monolith, Shixiang Capital and battery giant CATL are participating, alongside new investors reportedly in discussions including CPE, Legend Capital and Stony Creek Capital, plus GigaDevice-backed funds and state investment vehicles from Hefei. The Hangzhou-based company, originally bankrolled by founder Liang Wenfeng's quantitative trading firm High-Flyer, plans to use the capital to add roughly 1 gigawatt of computing capacity as it scales globally.
The raise sets up a potential IPO filing as soon as late 2026, with a public debut targeted for 2027 on Shanghai's Star Market. DeepSeek shook up the AI industry in 2025 with high-performance models that rivaled leading U.S. systems at a fraction of the reported training cost.