China’s DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at $74 billion valuation ahead of onshore IPO

Chinese ​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 a post-money valuation of about 450 billion yuan, the ‌people said.

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-centre capacity and engineering talent.