Chinese AI developer DeepSeek has raised approximately 100 billion yuan (around €13 billion) in its latest funding round. The company intends to use that capital to compete with US AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The funding round is among the largest in Chinese history and demonstrates DeepSeek’s ambition to expand its international presence.
Sources close to the negotiations indicate that the company’s fundraising targets were raised during the talks, from an initial 50 billion yuan (€6.6 billion) to 80 billion (€10.6 billion), before the final amount was eventually reached.
Although the details remain confidential, Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeChat, and Contemporary Amperex Technology, a market leader in the battery industry, were among the main investors in this funding round.
This capital injection prepares the company for a long-awaited stock market listing, following in the footsteps of other Chinese AI players such as Moonshot.
In 2025, DeepSeek caused considerable market instability worldwide by demonstrating that it could match the capabilities of Silicon Valley’s leading models at significantly lower costs.
The new funding narrows the financial gap with US competitors. Nevertheless, DeepSeek still has significantly fewer resources than companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which, according to the text, have each raised more than $100 billion (€89 billion).
DeepSeek is stepping up its investments in AI data centres and expanding its range of open-source models for users in China and beyond. By consistently bringing affordable, highly efficient tools to market, DeepSeek has disrupted the sector. A notable example occurred in September with the launch of V4.1 Flash, which led to a decline in the valuations of competitors such as Z.AI and MiniMax Group.
Other Chinese technology companies, such as ByteDance and Alibaba, are also focusing on affordable AI and have launched customisable services at low prices.
The company’s impact has been so profound that industry analysts have identified a ‘DeepSeek kill zone’: a competitive landscape in which other companies could go under if they cannot deliver superior performance or undercut DeepSeek’s prices.
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