DeepSeek Raises $15 Billion in Funding Round Led by CATL and Tencent

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is wrapping up a funding round that has generated roughly 100 billion yuan (about $14.98 billion) from existing and new investors, in what would rank among the largest financing rounds ever raised by a Chinese AI company. Bloomberg first reported the raise on Thursday, and Reuters confirmed the figures with people familiar with the matter.

What Was Announced?

According to Reuters, which cited two people with knowledge of the matter speaking on condition of anonymity, DeepSeek is wrapping up its latest funding round with about 100 billion yuan from existing and new investors. Bloomberg, which broke the story earlier Thursday, reported that the company had raised $15 billion in the round. Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings were among the biggest investors, one of the people told Reuters.

The fundraising is set to be completed in the coming days, though one source cautioned that the financial details are not ironclad and could still change. DeepSeek, CATL and Tencent could not immediately be reached for comment.

The final amount doubles DeepSeek’s original fundraising target of 50 billion yuan, underscoring strong investor interest as China pushes to get ahead of the United States in the AI race. Many of the backers are reported to be state-backed entities and large corporations.

Investors and Reported Terms

CATL and Tencent are described as the biggest contributors to the round. Dealroom, citing its own reporting, said the round is being co-led by the two giants and that existing shareholders IDG Capital, Lux Capital and Silicon 100 are participating alongside new backers including China Fortune-Tech Capital, CPE Asset Management, Legend Capital, Geely and Stony Creek Capital.

Dealroom also reported that CATL is roughly doubling its commitment, adding about US$1.38 billion after investing around US$687.5 million in an earlier round, and that the round’s pre-money valuation holds steady at about US$68.8 billion. Those figures are reported targets rather than officially confirmed terms, and should be treated as preliminary until the round closes.

The fundraising comes months after DeepSeek closed a first round of more than US$6.88 billion in June, per Dealroom. If the current round completes, the company will have raised about US$20.6 billion in six months, which Dealroom describes as the largest primary market financing in China this year.

Why It Matters

DeepSeek rose to global prominence with its efficient, openly available reasoning models, and the reported raise would give it capital on the scale of the biggest Western frontier labs at a moment when compute costs are exploding. The money is expected to fund model research and computing power, according to Dealroom’s reporting.

The round also signals that DeepSeek is moving closer to public markets. Reuters reported in September that the company had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a potential STAR Market initial public offering in Shanghai.

The financing lands weeks after DeepSeek released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, its latest model, which the company said was designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and scaling to larger models.

Sources

• Reuters: “DeepSeek wrapping up $15 billion fundraising to fuel AI race” (via The Standard, Oct 22, 2026; reporting by Kane Wu)
• Digest AI: “DeepSeek raises about 100 billion yuan in funding round” (Oct 22, 2026; citing Bloomberg via Techmeme)
• Dealroom: “DeepSeek doubles round to $15 billion, led by CATL and Tencent” (Oct 22, 2026)