DeepSeek closes a raise of about $15 billion, two days after its ban on US federal agencies

The Chinese laboratory brought together nearly 100 billion yuan with more than fifteen investors, CATL and Tencent leading, double its original target.

According to sources cited by Reuters and Bloomberg, DeepSeek is finalizing a round of financing of about 100 billion yuan, or nearly $15 billion, one of the largest financing deals ever carried out in China. The Hangzhou-based start-up initially targeted 50 billion yuan, then 80 billion; it raised its target at least twice in response to demand. The valuation before the injection of new money would be around 500 billion yuan.

A very industrial round of financing

Battery maker CATL and Tencent, already shareholders, are among the biggest contributors. They are joined by chipmaker GigaDevice, Meituan, Geely, Midea and NetEase, as well as funds such as Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital and IDG Capital. Analyst Lian Jye Su of Omdia said the presence of suppliers of critical components could make DeepSeek a central part of China's technology supply chains.

The operation comes two days after the order given to the US civil federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their systems. In June, the company had already raised about $7.4 billion for a valuation of about fifty billion; it mandated CITIC Securities for an IPO on the STAR Market in Shanghai.