- DeepSeek is seeking to raise 50 billion yuan ($7.35 billion), which could become the largest AI funding round in China to date.
- The startup plans to accelerate its commercialization efforts and will release the V4.1 model update in June.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is seeking to close its first funding round with a target of up to 50 billion yuan ($7.35 billion), according to a report by The Information on Friday.
If the massive funding plan materializes, it would be the largest financing round ever by a Chinese AI company.
People familiar with the discussions said DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng plans to write the biggest check for this round, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the massive funding plan has prompted the Chinese AI lab to accelerate its overall pace of generating revenue and achieving commercialization.
Two people involved in the discussions said DeepSeek has informed some investors of its plans to increase the release frequency of its AI models.
The company hopes to bring its release cadence closer to current industry standards by accelerating product iterations, and plans to release the V4.1 update in June, according to The Information.
The funding news comes just days after reports that China's state-backed semiconductor investment fund is seeking to lead the round.
The potential deal could cause the frontier AI lab's valuation to soar to about $45 billion, much higher than earlier expectations of $20 billion.
Other potential investors still in talks to take a stake include Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
For context, Tencent recently announced it will increase its AI investment this year to more than 36 billion yuan to consolidate its technological edge.
The China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, commonly known as the "Big Fund," has previously primarily provided financial support to key chipmakers such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.
If a deal is reached, it would mark the first time the state-level fund has publicly backed a Chinese large language model developer, highlighting its strategic importance.
DeepSeek said in its latest V4 model release that the model has been optimized for inference on Huawei's Ascend 950PR chips.
This trend of hardware and software co-development has drawn close attention from the US tech sector and is seen as a potential challenge to America's global dominance.
($1 = 6.8014 yuan)
