DeepSeek reportedly raises about $15B in yuan round led by CATL and Tencent

Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that DeepSeek collected about 100 billion yuan, roughly $15 billion, in its latest round. Sources said the Hangzhou company raised its target from 50 billion yuan to 80 billion yuan during talks before settling on the larger figure. CATL and Tencent were named among the largest investors, and no valuation for the round was given. The raise follows an early-October report that the company was sizing a round near $12 billion, which Lounge logged at a $74 billion valuation. Semafor cited analysts who said the financing could set the stage for a public listing. For founders, the scale of this round shows how far Chinese labs can raise from strategic industrial backers alongside venture funds. Frontier training budgets are rising quickly, so builders should expect pricing and talent competition from well-funded rivals to tighten.