DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab that gained attention in early 2025, is in talks for its first external funding round at a valuation of more than $20 billion, says Reuters.
Investor interest pushed the valuation above $20 billion in just 48 hours, according to people familiar with the talks. Tencent offered to buy up to a 20% stake, but DeepSeek does not want to give up that much control. Alibaba is also negotiating, but details of its offer have not been shared.
No deal has been finalised yet. The terms, valuation, and size of the funding round could still change, and none of the companies has commented publicly.
Earlier this week, we reported that DeepSeek was looking to raise at least $300 million at a minimum valuation of $10 billion, but that target doubled in just a few days.
Unlike OpenAI or Anthropic, which earn revenue from subscriptions and APIs, DeepSeek gives its models away for free, so it is harder to judge its value based on revenue. For comparison, MiniMax Group is valued at about $40 billion, making DeepSeek’s $20 billion target look like a discount compared to similar companies.
This number is also just above the $18 billion that Moonshot AI, which makes the Kimi LLM series, is seeking, putting DeepSeek at the high end of Chinese AI startup valuations.
