DeepSeek Rumored to Start New Funding Round
量子位 · wechat · 2026-07-15
According to the Financial Times and others, DeepSeek is meeting new investors to launch its second funding round. The pre-money valuation is around $71 billion, up roughly 37% from the post-money valuation of $52 billion in the first round. The company could file for an IPO as early as the end of this year, targeting a 2027 IPO.
Why This Round is Happening
The author believes the core driver is compute expansion:
- Agents require continuous inference, consuming more compute;
- Long contexts demand larger memory and infrastructure;
- DeepSeek aims to lock in computing resources for the next few years.
Where the Funds Will Go
- Building proprietary data centers;
- Purchasing more AI chips;
- R&D for next-gen AI systems like Agents.
Hiring and Infrastructure Signals
The article notes DeepSeek is aggressively hiring, including:
- IDC design engineers for GW-level data center site selection, layout, and construction;
- Training/inference framework engineers;
- High-performance operator and communication compiler engineers;
- Supercomputing cluster R&D engineers.
Additionally, Reuters reports DeepSeek is secretly developing its own AI inference chips, having contacted chip designers, foundries, and memory suppliers.
Extra Info
- The first round reportedly raised over 50 billion RMB;
- Liang Wenfeng personally invested about 20 billion RMB;
- The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his net worth has risen to $36 billion.
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