DeepSeek Seeks Another Billion in Funding as Valuation Surpasses $71B

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is seeking to raise at least 10 billion yuan in a follow-on funding round, pushing its valuation past $71 billion. This comes just weeks after it closed its first external funding round in early June 2026, which valued the company between $52 billion and $59 billion post-money.

The company's investor list includes Chinese corporate titans such as Tencent and CATL, with founder Liang Wenfeng contributing around 20 billion yuan through a limited partnership that grants investors zero voting rights and a five-year lock-up period.

DeepSeek plans to use the new funds to expand its compute power, build out data center capacity, and aggressively recruit talent. While the company has no direct connection to crypto or blockchain, its trajectory is significant for the broader narrative around AI tokens and decentralized compute networks.