DeepSeek is seeking fresh fundraising round just one month after completing its first-ever external financing, aiming to expand AI computing capacity and accelerate development.
In a rapid push to scale its infrastructure, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is reportedly in preliminary talks for a new funding round that targets a $71 billion pre-money valuation.
As reported by Financial Times, the move comes after the company closed its first-ever external financing round, raising $7.4 billion at a post-money valuation of approximately $52 billion.
DeepSeek is China’s best-known AI startup, which raised about $7 billion at a valuation of $52 billion in May, including the raised funds
The ‌startup became China’s national AI champion and garnered global fame early last year, when its V3 and R1 models drew widespread praise in Silicon Valley and challenged U.S. assumptions about China’s AI capabilities.
DeepSeek is heavily investing in acquiring more advanced AI chips. Reuters, previously reported that DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip, a push that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips, which it has depended on to train and run its globally popular models.
The company is aggressively shifting focus toward AI agents—systems designed to autonomously execute complex tasks.
The move underscores the growing capital intensity of frontier AI development as running these sophisticated, agentic workflows requires a massive, sustained surge in computing power.
