DeepSeek raises $15B amid US restrictions
deepseek raises $15 billion in funding round, defying us security concerns. chinese ai lab faces restrictions in us.
deepseek, a chinese ai lab founded in 2023 by liang wenfeng, has raised about $15 billion, or 100 billion yuan, in a significant funding round. this substantial investment follows the us government's decision to restrict deepseek's ai technology, ordering federal civilian agencies to remove it from their systems due to security concerns. potential investors in this round include chinese battery maker catl and tencent, the company behind wechat. deepseek had previously raised over $7 billion in june at a valuation of $50 billion and was seeking an additional $1.5 billion at a $71 billion valuation in july. the company plans to ramp up spending on ai infrastructure and open models for both domestic and international markets, intensifying competition among chinese rivals. this funding round signals investors' continued confidence in ai companies, with chinese firms like kimi developer moonshot ai and manus ai also securing significant investments recently.