DeepSeek Reportedly Halts Second Funding Round

According to Bloomberg and other media reports, DeepSeek has paused its second funding round. Potential investors who were expected to sign agreements in the coming days were verbally notified to hold off. The target size for this round is at least 10 billion yuan, with a pre-money valuation of no less than 480 billion yuan (about 74 billion USD). This follows the team's roughly 7.4 billion USD funding round completed just in June of this year.

Confirmed

Based on media reports and multiple sources, DeepSeek has indeed pressed the pause button on its financing. Bloomberg indicated that the trigger was the leak of the complete speech record made by founder Liang Wenfeng to investors by a first-round investor. These internal remarks were subsequently widely circulated and discussed on social media platforms like X. DeepSeek then asked its supporters to pause discussions related to the financing.

Unconfirmed

The news currently remains at the "reported" stage. Furthermore, insiders emphasized that this suspension does not equate to a cancellation, and there is a possibility that the transaction could resume in the future, though the exact timeline for a restart remains unclear.

Why it matters

DeepSeek's valuation target directly reflects the current appeal of top-tier AI companies in the capital markets. The halting of a ten-billion-yuan-level funding round due to a non-technical factor like the leakage of internal speeches not only highlights the company's cautious attitude towards public opinion but also draws intense market attention to its subsequent capital operations and commercialization pace.

2026-07-26 ~ 2026-07-27 · 5 related posts

Full story(4 episodes)→

Episode 1: DeepSeek Said to Pursue New Funding Round and Mainland IPO at ~$71B Valuation(2026-07-14, 15 posts)
Episode 2: DeepSeek Said to Near $500M ARR as Funding and IPO Plans Advance(2026-07-15, 9 posts)
Episode 3: DeepSeek Closes $7.4 Billion Funding Round(2026-07-17, 2 posts)
Episode 4: DeepSeek Reportedly Halts Second Funding Round(2026-07-26, 5 posts)

Primary sources

DeepSeek reportedly pauses a second funding round at a RMB 480 billion pre-money valuation — 量子位 · 2026-07-27 10:00 (UTC+08:00)
DeepSeek reportedly pauses second funding round after Liang Wenfeng transcript leak — teortaxesTex · 2026-07-26 02:12 (UTC+08:00)
Bloomberg says DeepSeek asked backers to pause funding talks after viral posts — huangyun_122 · 2026-07-26 13:44 (UTC+08:00)

DeepSeek reportedly pauses plans for a second funding round — Polymarket · 2026-07-26
[source] DeepSeek reportedly pauses second funding round after Liang Wenfeng transcript leak — teortaxesTex · 2026-07-26
DeepSeek pauses a second funding round after targeting a $74 billion valuation — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-07-26
[source] Bloomberg says DeepSeek asked backers to pause funding talks after viral posts — huangyun_122 · 2026-07-26
[source] DeepSeek reportedly pauses a second funding round at a RMB 480 billion pre-money valuation — 量子位 · 2026-07-27