DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial-intelligence lab behind the R1 and V4 models, is wrapping up a funding round of about 100 billion yuan (about $15 billion) in which battery maker CATL and Tencent Holdings were among the biggest investors, Reuters reported on Oct. 22, citing people familiar with the matter.

The size matters for investors in Asia. A single private round of this size is rare in Asian venture markets, and it draws on the balance sheets of two of the region's most widely held stocks. It also moves DeepSeek closer to a mainland listing that would give public-market investors their first direct way to own China's best-known AI developer.

How the DeepSeek round grew

The raise grew quickly. DeepSeek initially sought about 50 billion yuan, according to a Bloomberg News report cited by Reuters on Oct. 6. Demand picked up after the launch of its latest model, and by then the company was close to securing at least 80 billion yuan, with the final figure possibly approaching 100 billion yuan.

On Oct. 22, Reuters, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, said the round had reached about 100 billion yuan and was expected to be completed in the coming days. One of the people cautioned that the financial details were not final and could still change. Bloomberg News reported the same day that DeepSeek had raised $15 billion. DeepSeek, CATL and Tencent could not be reached for comment, Reuters said.

The round values DeepSeek at 500 billion yuan before the new capital, Reuters reported. More than 15 investors are taking part. Midea, Meituan, Geely and chipmaker GigaDevice are new backers, alongside Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital and existing shareholder IDG Capital. DeepSeek itself has not announced the financing.

Second outside raise this year

This is DeepSeek's second outside round in 2026. Its first, earlier in the year, raised about 50 billion yuan at a valuation of $52 billion to $59 billion, The Next Web reported, citing Bloomberg. Founder Liang Wenfeng was the largest investor in that round with about 20 billion yuan of his own money. Tencent put in roughly 10 billion yuan and CATL about 5 billion yuan, alongside JD.com, NetEase and China's national AI investment fund.

For CATL shareholders, the stake is a sizable bet outside batteries. The company reported last month that profit growth slowed to 14.5% in the third quarter as Chinese battery taxes squeezed margins. For Tencent, which runs WeChat and a large cloud business, the round adds to a stake it already held from the first round.

DeepSeek grew out of High-Flyer, a quantitative hedge fund that Liang founded, and drew global attention in early 2025 with its open-source R1 reasoning model. In September it released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, which it said offered greater capability and faster inference. It has also partnered with Huawei on programming tools for Huawei's Ascend AI chips, part of China's push to reduce its dependence on Nvidia's software ecosystem, Reuters reported.

Listing plans and what the money buys

The new cash adds to signs that DeepSeek is preparing for public markets. Reuters reported in September that the company had hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a possible initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market. The timing, valuation and size of any listing have not been decided, according to that report.

The round also stands out against wider startup funding. Asian startups raised about $38.5 billion in the third quarter, with AI taking 55% of the total. DeepSeek's single round would equal roughly 40% of that quarterly figure. In South Korea, chip designer FuriosaAI raised $620 million at a $2.9 billion valuation, a scale that looks small next to the Chinese lab's 2026 haul.

Training and serving frontier models consumes large amounts of computing power, and Chinese developers face U.S. export limits on the most advanced Nvidia chips. The reports did not say how DeepSeek plans to spend the money.

Several points remain unconfirmed. The company has not disclosed the final size, the amount each investor committed or when the round closes, and Reuters said the terms could still change.

The next concrete marker is a filing. A STAR Market prospectus would give investors their first public look at DeepSeek's revenue and costs.