DeepSeek reportedly raises $15B days after US ordered agencies to remove its AI

What happened

DeepSeek has raised roughly $15 billion, or around 100 billion yuan, according to a Bloomberg report covered by TechCrunch, making it one of the biggest funding rounds ever recorded in China. The money landed just two days after the U.S. government directed federal civilian agencies to strip DeepSeek's AI technology from their systems over security concerns.

The timing highlights a sharp divergence between Washington's posture toward the Chinese AI lab and the willingness of investors to keep backing it at scale.

Who is putting in the money

Bloomberg names Chinese battery maker CATL and Tencent, the operator of WeChat, as potential participants in the round, along with others. TechCrunch reports that DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment, so neither the final investor line-up nor the terms of the deal have been confirmed by the company itself.

A rapid sequence of raises

The new round extends an unusually fast fundraising streak. According to TechCrunch, DeepSeek collected more than $7 billion in June at a $50 billion valuation, and in July was reported to be seeking an additional $1.5 billion at a valuation near $71 billion, with a listing in China potentially arriving as early as next year.

The Hangzhou-based lab is said to be increasing spending on AI infrastructure and on open models aimed at markets both at home and abroad, even as its technology runs into restrictions in the United States. Bloomberg's report suggests the expansion could further heat up competition among China's crowded field of AI firms.

A wave of Chinese AI capital

DeepSeek's raise sits inside a broader surge of investment into Chinese AI companies. Moonshot AI, the developer of the Kimi assistant, secured $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May. Manus AI brought in more than $500 million earlier this month. Zhipu AI (Z.ai) and MiniMax, which both went public in Hong Kong in January, now carry market capitalizations of roughly $29 billion and $7.2 billion respectively, as reported by TechCrunch.

The company behind the number

DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, previously a co-founder of the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, which bankrolled the lab's early development. It drew global attention in early 2025 with its free-to-use, open-weight R1 reasoning model, which challenged the assumed dominance of U.S. AI firms. Corporate ownership data analyzed by WireScreen, cited by TechCrunch, indicates Liang still holds an estimated 81.6% stake in the company's Chinese operating entity following the earlier round.

Why it matters

A $15 billion round closing within days of a U.S. removal order shows that capital flows and security policy are now running on separate tracks. For DeepSeek, the funding signals that American restrictions are not choking off its access to money; domestic backers appear ready to scale the company even faster instead. For the industry at large, it confirms that the AI race is being financed on a global basis, with Chinese labs raising sums that rival their U.S. competitors. It also sets the stage for fiercer rivalry among DeepSeek, Moonshot, Zhipu and MiniMax, and for a possible DeepSeek IPO as soon as next year.