DeepSeek is reportedly negotiating to close its second major funding round, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Around 50 billion yuan, roughly $7.4 billion, is expected to be raised at a valuation of about $74 billion, with a contract signing anticipated by the end of August.
Investors stay on board as new backers join talks
The same investors who joined DeepSeek’s first external funding round at the end of May remain in the resumed round: investment firm Monolith, Shixiang Capital, and battery maker CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology), as Bloomberg reports. According to TechStartups, which cites the Wall Street Journal and South China Morning Post, investment firms CPE, Legend Capital, and Stony Creek Capital, funds tied to chipmaker GigaDevice, and state investment vehicles from Hefei are also in talks. Earlier backers such as Tencent, JD.com, and NetEase no longer appear in the latest reports.
The fresh capital is meant to fund the expansion of DeepSeek’s own data centers and the purchase of semiconductors; TechStartups puts the planned additional computing capacity at around one gigawatt and also cites AI talent hiring as a use of funds. Financially, DeepSeek is not in bad shape: the company reached an annualized revenue base of around $500 million in July 2026, driven mainly by sales of cloud API access to its own models.
Leaked founder remarks stalled the talks
The round was on ice for a stretch: in late July, transcripts of a conversation between founder Liang Wenfeng and investors circulated on Chinese social media, in which he reportedly acknowledged China’s lag behind the US in computing power and funding and addressed the country’s continued reliance on Nvidia chips. Bloomberg said it could not verify the authenticity of the transcripts. According to Fortune, DeepSeek then told prospective investors verbally that planned contract signings would be delayed, driven by the founder’s frustration over public reporting on his otherwise private remarks.
DeepSeek resumed talks in early August with a higher target: where the reported valuation had stood at around $70 to $71 billion, figures of up to $74 billion have circulated since. This valuation is independently unverified, since all figures rest on anonymous sources familiar with the talks; DeepSeek itself has not commented publicly.
Shanghai listing plans remain unchanged
The underlying IPO plans have not changed: DeepSeek is still preparing a listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market, as already described in July’s article on the initial $70 billion target. An application for the initial listing could still be filed as early as 2026, with the actual debut still expected more likely in 2027. Robotics maker Unitree previously made its own debut on the same exchange, gaining around 460 percent on its first trading day – a sign of investor appetite for Chinese AI and robotics stocks despite an otherwise difficult IPO climate for Chinese tech firms.
DeepSeek itself still has not officially confirmed either the funding round or the IPO plans. For a company founded in 2023, the leap from its first external financing in May 2026 to a possible stock listing within roughly a year and a half would be unusually fast.
What matters now is whether DeepSeek actually finalizes the signing by the end of August as announced – a similar timeline already fell through once in July. If the round closes at $74 billion, DeepSeek would move closer to the valuations of Western AI providers despite a still comparatively small revenue base of around $500 million. It also remains open how much of the fresh capital can actually convert into added computing power given US export controls, as long as access to the most powerful Nvidia chips stays restricted.
