DeepSeek said to raise at least $12B with Tencent and CATL as biggest backers

On October 6, 2026, Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek is close to securing at least 80 billion yuan in its latest funding round. Most outlets, including Techmeme and several Chinese tech media, translated that as roughly $12 billion, while ETtech put the figure at $11.93 billion. All of the reports cited people familiar with the matter and named Tencent and CATL as the largest contributors. Nothing has been officially confirmed: CATL declined to comment, Tencent did not immediately respond, and DeepSeek did not reply to requests for comment.

DeepSeek originally sought about 50 billion yuan in the round, but investor interest surpassed expectations after the release of its latest AI model, pushing the size upward. People familiar with the matter said the signed term sheets could take the final total close to 100 billion yuan, and Techmeme's summary of the Bloomberg report said the round could reach roughly $14.9 billion. The funding is described as laying the groundwork for an IPO planned for early 2027, with the listing venue not yet disclosed. cnBeta reported that DeepSeek's original target valuation for the round was about 500 billion yuan, and that although negotiations are nearing completion, terms could still change in final talks.

The coverage of DeepSeek's momentum centers on the V4 Flash model, which Chinese tech outlets said reset market expectations for the price-performance of the company's models and put it in a position to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. Reports also noted that DeepSeek has drawn attention since releasing a large model in 2025. cnBeta said Tencent had been DeepSeek's largest investor in an earlier round with 10 billion yuan, and that CATL may be interested in supplying components to the AI industry, including data centers. The same report noted that Moonshot AI plans an early-2027 listing after completing a pre-IPO round at a $50 billion valuation.