Investing.com-- Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) in its latest funding round, marking a major step in its efforts to compete with U.S. AI leaders, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Hangzhou-based company raised its fundraising target at least twice, from an initial 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan, before reaching the final amount, Bloomberg reported.
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) (SZ:300750) and Tencent Holdings (HK:0700), operator of WeChat, were among the largest investors, the report said.
The funding could help narrow the resource gap with U.S. rivals OpenAI and Anthropic, which have each raised more than $100 billion, although DeepSeek still has considerably less financial firepower.
DeepSeek gained global attention in 2025 after demonstrating that competitive AI models could be developed at relatively low cost, triggering a sell-off in technology stocks.
The company has since increased spending on data centres and open-source models as it prepares for a potential initial public offering, Bloomberg has reported.
Original Article
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