DeepSeek is expected to pursue an initial public offering that would mark an important milestone for Chinese markets.BEIJING: The Chinese AI pioneer DeepSeek has raised about ¥100 billion (US$15 billion) in its latest fundraising round, one of the country’s largest ever and a sign of the startup’s ambitions to compete globally with the likes of Anthropic PBC and OpenAI.
The Hangzhou-based firm boosted its financing target at least twice as it talked with investors, from ¥50 billion to ¥80 billion before reaching the final tally, according to people familiar with the matter.
Battery pioneer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) and WeChat-operator Tencent Holdings Ltd were among the biggest investors in the round, said the people, asking not to be named as the details aren’t public.
