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Exclusive | DeepSeek to soon close first external fundraising in US$50b valuation: sources

South China Morning Post · · 234 words · By Ben Jiang
Geopolitical Competition State-Backed Investment Corporate Valuation
open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3352945/deepseek-soon-close-first-…

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6 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

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info Single Source 3
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“DeepSeek is expected to close its first external financing round soon, boosting its valuation to up to US$50 billion”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results report that DeepSeek is seeking funding with a valuation of up to $50 billion (one source mentions $45b and another $50b).
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web search NEUTRAL — 付费培训 DeepSeek爆火之后，中国大陆网络出现了很多针对DeepSeek在 电商 、 自媒体 、教育、 编程 等领域应用的培训课程，内容包括本地部署、提示语等，有些为免费，有些则须支付几十到上千元不等的费用。
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/深度求索
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web search NEUTRAL — Based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, DeepSeek is owned and funded by High-Flyer, a Chinese hedge fund. DeepSeek was founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the co-founder of High-Flyer, who also serves as the …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepSeek
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web search NEUTRAL — 基于自研训练框架、自建智算集群和万卡算力等资源，深度求索团队仅用半年时间便已发布并开源多个百亿级参数大模型，如DeepSeek-LLM通用大语言模型、DeepSeek-Coder代码大模型，并在2024年1月率先开源国内首个MoE大模型（DeepSeek-MoE），各大模型在公开评测榜单及 ...
https://www.deepseek.com/
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“The round was being backed by a group of state-linked investors, including AI-focused affiliates under the third phase of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, known as the “Big Fund III””
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While evidence confirms the existence and purpose of the 'Big Fund III', none of the provided search results explicitly link Big Fund III as a backer for DeepSeek's specific financing round.
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web search NEUTRAL — 163 The fund aims to help China reach its national goal of achieving self-sufficiency in the semiconductor industry (as part of the Made in China 2025 plan) by investing in domestic semiconductor comp…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Integrated_Circuit_Indus…
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web search NEUTRAL — The third phase of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the “Big Fund”, was established last week with a registered capital of 344 billion yuan (US$47.5 billion) as par…
https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3264612/tech-war-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Big Fund III is preparing to make its first major investments in coming months, with a directive to spur industry consolidation, and aims to become China's largest-ever semiconductor fund if it reache…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-27/china-s-5…
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“Global investment firm Hillhouse was also involved in the funding discussions”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence discusses DeepSeek's origins with High-Flyer and its general success, but does not mention Hillhouse Capital's involvement in funding discussions.
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web search NEUTRAL — When Chinese quant hedge fund founder Liang Wenfeng went into AI research, he took 10,000 Nvidia chips and assembled a team of young, ambitious talent. Two years later, DeepSeek exploded on the scene.
https://www.wired.com/story/deepseek-china-model-ai/
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web search NEUTRAL — The origins of DeepSeek (the company) lay in those involving High-Flyer, a Far east hedge fund launched in 2016 by a trio of computer scientists having a focus on computer trading strategies. Q3: How …
https://chassisdebts.net/deepseek-discussed-everything-requi…
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web search NEUTRAL — DeepSeek Large Language Model Algorithm, Deep Exploration AI. He further pointed out that DeepSeek's success story is extremely rare, almost a once-in-a-century occurrence. It gained massive traffic r…
https://www.aibase.com/news/15309
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“Shenzhen-based video gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings took part in the round too”
CORROBORATED
One web result explicitly mentions Tencent and Alibaba are negotiating their entry into DeepSeek's capital, and other results confirm Tencent's identity as a Shenzhen-based giant.
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web search NEUTRAL — Tencent (Chinese: 腾讯; pinyin: Téngxùn) is a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 3, 2026 · Founded in 1998, Tencent is an Internet-based platform company using technology to enrich the lives of Internet users and assist the digital upgrade of enterprises. Our mission is "Value…
https://www.tencent.com/en-us/
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web search NEUTRAL — 14 hours ago · Get the latest Tencent Holdings Limited (HKG:0700) stock price quote with financials, statistics, dividends, charts, historical data and more.
https://stockanalysis.com/quote/hkg/0700/
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“local media outlets reported last month when the Hangzhou-based frontier AI lab started the funding round [the initial value was] US$10 billion”
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Only one specific source ('America Just Spent $700 Billion on AI. | by Mr Tony Momoh') mentions the initial valuation of $10 billion at the start of the round.
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web search NEUTRAL — $10 billion. That’s DeepSeek’s valuation the Chinese AI startup that just opened its first ever funding round, seeking $300 million. A company that has never taken outside capital.
https://pub.aimind.so/america-just-spent-700-billion-on-ai-c…
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web search NEUTRAL — The deal could value the company at over $20.000 billion. DeepSeek, linked to High-Flyer Capital, stood out for its advanced and low-cost AI models. The potential investment strengthens China's strugg…
https://en.actualidadecommerce.com/Tencent-and-Alibaba-are-n…
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web search NEUTRAL — DeepSeek seeks funding at reported $45b valuation.DeepSeek reportedly seeks billions in funding from Chinese government at $50 billion valuation. 10 hours ago.
https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZj…
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“the Hangzhou-based frontier AI lab”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources, including France24, South China Morning Post, and Wikipedia, explicitly state that DeepSeek is based in Hangzhou.
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cross reference SUPPORTS — Hangzhou-based DeepSeek burst onto the scene in January last year with a generative AI chatbot, powered by its R1 reasoning model, that upended assumptions of US dominance in the strategic sector.
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260424-us-china-ai-…
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cross reference SUPPORTS — The Hangzhou-based AI lab’s namesake chatbot website and app were offline from Sunday evening, with the company continuing to investigate while issuing fixes from between 1am and 9am on Monday, accord…
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348345/deepseek-…
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cross reference SUPPORTS — The Hangzhou-based AI lab’s namesake chatbot website and app were offline from Sunday evening, with the company continuing to investigate while issuing fixes from between 1am and 9am on Monday, accord…
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348345/deepseek-…
+ 1 more evidence source
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.