A lab that built its reputation on doing more with less is now raising more than almost anyone expected.
The round is not small, and it is not quiet. It is one of the largest AI financings China has seen.
For DeepSeek, the question is what a war chest this size actually buys in a race where compute is the bottleneck.
Key takeaways
- DeepSeek is wrapping up a funding round of about 100 billion yuan (≈US$15 billion) from more than 15 investors, according to Reuters reporting on Oct. 22, 2026.
- Battery giant CATL and WeChat operator Tencent, both existing shareholders, were among the biggest backers; new investors include Meituan, Geely, Midea, and chipmaker GigaDevice.
- The round values DeepSeek at about 500 billion yuan (≈US$75 billion) before the new capital is added, and doubled an original 50 billion yuan target.
- It follows a US$7.4 billion first external round in June; filings in July had implied a roughly 350.88 billion yuan (≈US$52 billion) valuation then.
- The raise lands as DeepSeek moves closer to public markets, after Reuters reported in September that it hired CITIC Securities for a possible STAR Market listing.
What happened
Reuters reported on Oct. 22, 2026 that DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan (≈US$14.98 billion) in its latest funding round from investors including CATL, Tencent, Meituan, and automaker Geely. Bloomberg first reported the size of the round the same day, citing people familiar with the matter. Four people with knowledge of the matter described the transaction to Reuters.
The fundraising more than doubled DeepSeek's original 50 billion yuan target as investor demand piled in. CATL and Tencent, both existing shareholders, were among the largest investors, two of the people said. Other participants included home-appliance maker Midea, food-delivery giant Meituan, automaker Geely, and semiconductor maker GigaDevice, along with Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital, and existing shareholder IDG Capital. One source said the total number of investors exceeded 15.
The numbers, in context
- Round size: ≈100 billion yuan (≈US$15 billion), using Reuters' cited rate of US$1 = 6.6749 yuan.
- Pre-money valuation: ≈500 billion yuan (≈US$75 billion) before new capital.
- Prior round: US$7.4 billion inaugural external raise in June 2026; July filings implied ≈350.88 billion yuan (≈US$52 billion) at that time.
- Investor mix: a cross-section of China's industrial base — batteries, cloud, autos, chips, consumer platforms — plus state-connected and corporate capital.
The investor list reads less like a startup cap table and more like a map of China's supply chain, a point Omdia analyst Lian Jye Su made to Reuters: the backers are "all Chinese and critical component supply chain vendors," which could make DeepSeek a key node in domestic tech supply chains.
Why it matters
DeepSeek's pitch has always been efficiency: capable models trained and served without the largest US chips. A US$15 billion round changes the calculus. It gives the Hangzhou lab resources to fund compute at a scale few labs can match, even as Washington restricts advanced semiconductors. It also signals that Chinese state-connected and corporate capital is moving aggressively to keep DeepSeek in the race against US frontier labs.
The raise comes during a selloff in global tech stocks this month. Hong Kong-listed model developers Z.AI and MiniMax have fallen sharply from their earlier peaks, Reuters reported, and concerns about AI spending have delayed or withdrawn some data-center IPOs. DeepSeek is moving the other way — pulling in private capital despite the chill.
The path to public markets
After the fundraising, DeepSeek edges closer to tapping public markets. In September, Reuters reported the company aimed to kick off its IPO process this year and had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a potential STAR Market float in Shanghai. Last month it released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, which it said was built for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput, and scaling to larger models.
Honest limitations
The figures come from Reuters and Bloomberg reporting based on people with knowledge of the matter; DeepSeek did not immediately comment, and several named companies did not respond. The fundraising is expected to complete in the coming days, but one source cautioned that financial details and the investor lineup are "not ironclad and could still change." Valuations cited are reported pre-money estimates, not audited post-money figures confirmed by the company. Currency conversions use Reuters' stated exchange rate and are approximate.
What readers can do now
- Distinguish this round from the June raise: the October round is a separate, much larger event at a higher valuation.
- Watch the investor map: CATL, Tencent, Geely, and GigaDevice signal deep industrial alignment, not just financial backing.
- Wait for filings: a STAR Market or Hong Kong prospectus is the only place to verify audited financials and the final cap table.