DeepSeek raises $7.4B in first external round, setting sights on OpenAI and Anthropic abroad

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek raised over $7.4 billion in its first external funding round, led by Tencent and CATL, with founder Liang Wenfeng personally contributing $3 billion. The company plans to use the capital to undercut Western rivals OpenAI and Anthropic on price while expanding overseas, and is preparing for a potential IPO on Shanghai's STAR market.

DeepSeek raises $7.4B in first external round, setting sights on OpenAI and Anthropic abroad China's most valuable AI startup secured massive funding from Tencent and CATL while its founder personally committed $3 billion to the round DeepSeek just closed the kind of funding round that makes Silicon Valley do a double-take. The Hangzhou-based AI lab raised over $7.4 billion, roughly 50 billion yuan, in its first external funding round, landing a post-money valuation north of $50 billion. That makes it China’s most valuable AI startup, and it has very clear plans for what comes next: undercutting OpenAI and Anthropic on price while expanding aggressively overseas. Who wrote the checks The investor list reads like a who’s who of Chinese corporate power. Tencent reportedly invested around 10 billion yuan, while CATL, the world’s dominant EV battery manufacturer, contributed roughly 5 billion yuan. But the most telling number might be founder Liang Wenfeng’s personal commitment. He put approximately $3 billion, or 20 billion yuan, of his own capital into the round. The funding was structured through a limited partnership that gives investors a five-year lock-up period and limited voting rights. In English: the people writing checks get to share in the upside, but Liang keeps his hands firmly on the steering wheel. The cost-efficiency play DeepSeek’s open-weight models, which began gaining serious traction in 2025, have been notable for delivering performance comparable to leading Western models at a fraction of the cost. The V4 model released in 2026 represents the company’s most direct challenge yet to Western incumbents, going toe-to-toe with GPT and Claude on major benchmarks. What comes next DeepSeek apparently isn’t done raising capital. As of mid-July 2026, the company is reportedly in discussions for a follow-on round of approximately $1.5 billion, which would push its valuation into the $71 billion to $74 billion range. Beyond the follow-on round, DeepSeek is preparing for an initial public offering on Shanghai’s STAR market, with a potential launch window in late 2026 or early 2027. The risk for investors watching this space is concentration. DeepSeek’s funding structure, with its five-year lock-up and limited voting rights, means early backers are making a deeply illiquid bet on Liang Wenfeng’s vision. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .