Talks restarted Aug 4–5 · Target ~50B yuan (~$7B) · ~500B yuan (~$70B) pre-money · Official confirmation still pending
Summary: DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab behind the open-weight R1 and V4 models, has restarted talks for a second funding round targeting roughly 50 billion yuan (~$7 billion) at a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion yuan (~$70 billion) — up ~43% from its first round two months ago. If it closes, DeepSeek will have raised over $14 billion in under five months. Every Round-2 figure below comes from anonymous dealmakers cited by Chinese financial media, not from an official DeepSeek statement.
Reported ≠ closed: amount, valuation, and timeline are still negotiation chatter; DeepSeek has not publicly confirmed Round 2 terms
Fundraising cadence ≈ compute bills: analysts estimate ~70% of each raise goes to chips, data centers, bandwidth, and liquid cooling
Most investors don't get a vote: Round-1 capital largely entered via a Liang-controlled LP with a five-year lock-up; the state AI fund was the exception
~148x P/S is untested: against ~$400–500M ARR, the multiple dwarfs common dealmaker estimates for OpenAI (~65x) and Anthropic (~21x)
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 2026 | Registered capital rose; Liang's direct stake moved from 1% to 34%, total control ~84.29% with his entity; Round 1 opened; V4 series previewed |
| June 2026 | Round 1 closed at ~50B yuan (~$7.4B), post-money >350B yuan ($52–59B across sources) — largest first-round raise in Chinese AI history |
| July 14–17, 2026 | STAR Market IPO prep reported; Round-2 talk at ~$71B pre-money; ARR (~$400–500M, mostly API tokens) surfaced publicly |
| July 25–26, 2026 | Talks paused; Bloomberg and others cited Liang's frustration that closed-door investor comments had leaked online |
| August 4–5, 2026 | Caijing-cited dealmakers: round restarted, still targeting ~50B yuan at ~500B yuan pre-money, signing expected late August; both sides want a low profile |
Caveat: every Round-2 figure above could still shift before signing.
| Round 1 (closed) | Round 2 (in talks) | |
|---|---|---|
| Talks opened | April 2026 | Restarted mid-July, paused, restarted again Aug 4–5 |
| Expected/actual close | June 2026 | Late August 2026 (planned) |
| Amount | ~50B yuan (~$7.4B) | Target ~50B yuan (~$7B) |
| Valuation basis | Post-money >350B yuan | Pre-money ~500B yuan (~$70B) |
| Valuation increase | — | ~+43% vs Round 1 |
| Key backers | National AI Industry Investment Fund, Tencent (10B yuan), CATL (5B yuan), JD.com, NetEase, IDG, Loyal Valley, Shixiang | Round-1 runner-ups + some existing backers increasing stakes |
| Combined if Round 2 closes | — | Over 100B yuan (~$14B) in under 5 months |
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ARR | ~$400–500 million | Mostly API tokens; media-sourced, not an official disclosure |
| Gross margin | Reportedly >50% | Unverified by independent audit |
| Implied P/S | ~140–150x | Vs OpenAI ~65x and Anthropic ~21x per dealmaker estimates |
| MAU | 100M+ (externally reported) | Methodology undisclosed |
Shortly after closing Round 1, DeepSeek said it would double headcount across data-center and AI-agent teams, and Reuters reported it was hiring chip-design engineers for its own AI inference chips. Industry analysts estimate that for every 10 billion yuan raised, roughly 7 billion yuan goes straight into compute-related spending. The fundraising cadence is a race to keep pace with compute buildout.
In Round 1, most outside capital flowed through a limited partnership controlled by Liang Wenfeng — no voting rights, five-year lock-up. The exception: China's National AI Industry Investment Fund, which invested directly with voting rights and no lock-up. The structure keeps Liang's control near 84% and has drawn governance scrutiny from outlets such as Forbes.
At a $70 billion pre-money valuation against $400–500 million in ARR, implied P/S sits around 140–150x. One dealmaker's assessment, translated from Chinese coverage: "Pricing a foundation-model company is fundamentally an options bet, not a cash-flow valuation." Investors are pricing the chance DeepSeek becomes infrastructure-level in China's compute ecosystem and enterprise agent market.
| Company | Listing | Latest valuation / market cap | Reported ARR | Recent funding pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek | Private, preparing STAR Market IPO | ~500B yuan pre-money (~$70B, in talks) | ~$400–500M | 2 rounds in 4 months, targeting >$14B combined |
| Moonshot AI (Kimi) | Private | ~$20B (May 2026) | ~$200M | 4 rounds in 6 months, ~$3.9B total |
| Zhipu AI | Listed (Hong Kong) | ~350B yuan market cap (May 2026) | Undisclosed | ~8.3B yuan raised pre-IPO |
| MiniMax | Listed (Hong Kong) | ~210B yuan market cap (May 2026) | Undisclosed | ~11B yuan raised pre-IPO |
The pattern: DeepSeek and Moonshot — still private — both carry P/S multiples around 140–150x, well above what already-listed Zhipu and MiniMax trade at in the secondary market.
Leaked closed-door remarks stalled the deal: the July pause was reportedly driven by Liang's frustration that first-round investor-meeting comments had spread online
Voting-rights structure draws scrutiny: most external investors have no vote and a five-year lock-up; only the state-backed National AI Industry Investment Fund gets direct voting rights with no lock-up
Valuation-to-revenue gap remains unresolved: 140–150x P/S is extreme even versus high-growth SaaS (often 30–50x); whether it holds depends on converting technical lead into scaled enterprise revenue after a STAR Market listing
Treat specific numbers as reported-but-unconfirmed until a formal announcement.
Model unit economics from Token costs and reported margins — do not treat a $70B headline as an SLA
Regression-test OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible model names in an isolated environment before production cutover
Validate real agent workloads (OpenClaw, Claude Code, etc.) for latency, cache hit rate, and long-session stability
If you need a macOS GUI for desktop agents or permission dialogs, rent a remote Mac instead of buying hardware for a short trial
Cite Round-2 figures as unconfirmed until official filings or company statements appear
Not yet. As of this writing, the round is still in negotiation, targeting a close by late August 2026. The final amount and terms could differ from what's currently being reported.
Reports point to rapid buildout of data centers, in-house AI chips, and headcount across agent and infrastructure teams — capex that outpaces what Round 1 covered.
No. It comes from dealmakers cited anonymously by Chinese financial media (primarily Caijing), not from an official DeepSeek statement, and it could change before any agreement is signed.
Not necessarily. In Round 1, most outside investors received no voting rights and a five-year lock-up, while only China's National AI Industry Investment Fund got direct voting rights — a governance debate that remains unresolved.
DeepSeek is reportedly preparing to file for a STAR Market listing in Shanghai by the end of 2026, targeting a 2027 debut. This private round remains limited to institutional backers.
Headlines can price DeepSeek at $70 billion; builders still need API stability, agent longevity, and Token unit economics. Buying high-end Macs just to chase a fundraising narrative is usually the wrong trade. A clearer path: separate production traffic from evaluation, then use an environment you can shut off. Rent a VNCMac remote Mac, wire DeepSeek APIs and OpenClaw multi-model agents into a VNC session, measure latency by the hour, and stop when the project ends. Start with Mac plans; also see our V4 Flash review and DeepSeek custom-chip coverage.
Sources: Caijing (via Sina Finance / Wall Street CN), Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, SCMP, Caixin, and related coverage. Most figures are anonymous-sourced. Verify before republishing. As of August 6, 2026.