DeepSeek Resumes Funding Round to Raise $8 Billion

DeepSeek Resumes Funding Round to Raise $8 Billion

DeepSeek has resumed its second funding round and is looking to raise close to $8 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Aug. 6), citing unnamed sources.

The Chinese artificial intelligence startup is raising the funds at a valuation of about $74 billion, according to the report.

The discussions are ongoing, and the details could change, per the report.

DeepSeek did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The Bloomberg report said DeepSeek is “riding high” after releasing its V4 Flash AI model, which gained attention for its cost-performance offering, just like the earlier model that made the company famous in early 2025.

It was reported July 25 that DeepSeek paused its second round of funding days after viral comments on American-Chinese AI competition were widely attributed to the company’s founder, Liang Wenfeng.

The comments, which the report said were unverified, were said to be from a transcript of a meeting Liang held with unidentified parties and involved Liang discussing a reliance on Nvidia chips for AI development and China’s ongoing lag in AI sophistication compared to the U.S.

It was reported less than two weeks earlier, on July 14, that DeepSeek was considering a second financing round weeks after completing its first.

DeepSeek wrapped its first round of funding near the end of May, raising $7 billion at a $52 billion valuation.

The July 14 report said DeepSeek had begun preliminary discussions with new investors about another funding round that would value the company at roughly $71 billion before the deal. That figure would be a 37% increase in valuation.

DeepSeek’s unusually fast funding schedule was related to expectations of increased capital needed to construct its own data center and acquire more chips, according to the report.

It was reported July 15 that DeepSeek had built an annualized revenue base approaching $500 million and that this had strengthened the company’s plans to raise billions of dollars and pursue a public listing.

DeepSeek’s annualized revenue reportedly had reached between $400 million and $500 million, driven largely by sales of cloud-based access to its models through application programming interfaces.

DeepSeek initially gained attention in January 2025 when it debuted an AI model that sent shockwaves through the AI world by offering performance comparable to those of American rivals OpenAI and Meta while using substantially fewer Nvidia chips.