Contract Completion by Late August! DeepSeek Resumes Second-Round Financing, Plans to Raise 50 Billion Yuan with Pre-Money Valuation of 500 Billion

China's magazine Caijing reported on Wednesday (5th), citing multiple transaction sources, that Chinese AI large model company DeepSeek has restarted its second-round financing, planning to raise 50 billion yuan (RMB, same below), with a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion yuan, aiming to complete the signing by late August.

The report stated that DeepSeek's current round of financing was launched in mid-July but was temporarily suspended at the end of July due to a leak of investor meeting records. After restarting, both the company and its negotiation partners have requested to proceed discreetly, with some early-contacted institutions not yet notified of the restart.

DeepSeek's first-round financing launched in April this year and closed in June, raising 50 billion yuan with a valuation exceeding 350 billion yuan, setting a record for the largest initial funding round among Chinese AI large model companies. The investor lineup spans founders, internet giants, and industrial capital: Liang Wenfeng personally invested about 20 billion yuan, Tencent 10 billion yuan, the CATL system 5 billion yuan, JD.com, NetEase, and IDG Capital each 3 billion yuan, with Lisi Capital, Zhengxin Valley, and Shixiang Capital following. The National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund also joined. Initial expressions of interest exceeded 100 billion yuan, with demand far outstripping available shares.

DeepSeek's second-round negotiation list includes both first-round runner-up institutions and existing shareholders seeking additional investment, with the pre-money valuation jumping approximately 43% from the first round. If successfully closed, DeepSeek's cumulative fundraising across two rounds will surpass 100 billion yuan, with funds expected to be allocated to next-generation model development, computing infrastructure, and commercialization efforts.

Driven by its low-cost, high-performance approach and strong performance in reasoning and code generation, DeepSeek has become a benchmark in China's foundational model sector. The high valuation in the second round reflects the capital market's reassessment of the long-term value of domestically developed Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

As of publication, DeepSeek has not responded to media requests for comment.