---
title: "China's DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at $74 billion valuation"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/2bba5b2d-bf04-4464-a603-9b69016336aa
source_url: "https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/07/20/business/foreign-business/chinas-deepseek-to-raise-fresh-capital-at-74-billion-valuation-ahead-of-onshore-ipo-sources-say/2387159"
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/finance/stack/f947deb3-cc46-4708-be70-b5d70fe6a5d3
summary: "DeepSeek is planning to raise up to 50 billion yuan in a new funding round at a valuation of approximately 500 billion yuan ($74 billion), following a $7.4 billion raise in June 2025. The Chinese AI startup has also begun early deliberations on a potential IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market, with an internal target to complete a filing this year."
tags: "deepseek, artificial-intelligence, ipo, fundraising, valuation, china-tech, star-market"
key_entities: "DeepSeek (organization), Liang Wenfeng (person), Tencent Holdings (organization), CATL (organization), High-Flyer (organization), Hangzhou (location), STAR Market IPO (event), ByteDance (organization), Alibaba (organization), AI inference chip (technology), Z.ai (organization), Moonshot (organization), MiniMax (organization), AI fundraising (concept)"
classification: "notes"
content_hash: "sha256:f394c859b8aca6a3177fb9fb061db1872c264eabefd19cd88021d6e5e886241b"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 1157
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# China's DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at $74 billion valuation

OPINION NEWS REGIONS WORLD BUSINESS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT LIFESTYLE THE SUNDAY TIMES SPECIAL FEATURES SPECIAL SECTIONS TMT NEWSWIRE LEGAL ADVICE FAST TIMES CAMPUS PRESS VIDEOS EXPATS & DIPLOMATS PHOTOS PODCASTS BUSINESS FORUM RESOURCES MARKET OVERVIEW EXAM RESULTS WEATHER CLASSIFIEDS TMT CSI TMT DIGITAL EDITION GAMES TMT 125TH ANNIVERSARY QUIZZES Business Foreign Business China's DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at $74 billion valuation ahead of onshore IPO, sources say By Reuters July 20, 2026 30 Resize Small Medium Large HONG KONG/BEIJING — Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek is planning to launch a fresh fundraising round at a valuation of about 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) ahead of a potential mainland initial public offering, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The plan comes just weeks after the Hangzhou-based company, which drew global attention with its low-cost AI models in 2025, raised about $7.4 billion in June at a post-money valuation of about 450 billion yuan, the people said. Filings by two Chinese investors later suggested DeepSeek was valued at 350.88 billion yuan, or around $52 billion. The back-to-back fundraising plans underscore strong investor appetite for one of China’s most closely watched AI companies, but also point to the rising costs of competing in AI, which requires large amounts of computing power, data-center capacity and engineering talent. DeepSeek is looking to raise as much as 50 billion yuan in the new funding round, according to a third person briefed on the matter. Get the latest news delivered to your inbox Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . It has also started early deliberations on a potential initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, the three sources and two other people with knowledge of the plan said. The company has set an internal target to complete an IPO filing this year, one of them said. Advertisement All the people declined to be identified because the information is not public. The fundraising and IPO plans are at early stages, and terms and timetable may change, they said. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg News first reported on Tuesday that DeepSeek was preparing for a possible IPO filing, while the Financial Times reported that the company was weighing a fresh fundraising round at a valuation of at least 480 billion yuan. Rising costs Advertisement DeepSeek shook global techno­logy markets last year after releasing models that appeared to rival leading US systems at lower training and operating costs. Soon after its maiden fundraising round in June, DeepSeek said it planned to double staff across departments, including in areas such as data centers, and AI agents, systems capable of performing tasks with limited prompting. Some of those initiatives will require significant capital expenditure. Reuters reported earlier this month that DeepSeek was looking to develop its own AI inference chip and had discreetly increased hiring of chip-design engineers for the project. DeepSeek had long stood out in China’s AI sector for rejecting outside funding. Founder Liang Wenfeng had largely bankrolled the company using his quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer before its recent external financing, sources previously told Reuters. Advertisement But the cost of staying at the frontier of AI has risen sharply, forcing a change in strategy. DeepSeek has in the past year faced stiff competition at home from tech giants including ByteDance and Alibaba, as well as well-funded AI startups such as Z.ai, Moonshot, and MiniMax. In the June funding round, DeepSeek founder Liang personally committed 20 billion yuan, while Tencent Holdings and battery giant CATL chipped in 10 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan respectively to become the largest external shareholders, Reuters reported at the time. Other investors include China’s national AI fund, gaming developer NetEase and e-commerce giant JD.com, as well as investment firms IDG Capital, Loyal Valley Capital, Monolith Management, and Shixiang Capital, according to sources and media reports. Advertisement The participation of the state-backed AI fund highlighted DeepSeek’s strategic importance to Beijing’s efforts to build domestic AI champions and reduce reliance on foreign technology. Home My Library Podcasts Videos Games This website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read More. Close