DeepSeek Eyes $1.5B Raise at $71B Valuation, IPO on the Horizon for 2027
DeepSeek is in talks to raise roughly $1.5 billion at a $71 billion valuation, just a month after its first external funding round. The Chinese AI lab is targeting an IPO as early as 2027.
Chinese large-language model developer DeepSeek is preparing a new funding round of roughly $1.5 billion at a valuation of about $71 billion, with plans for an initial public offering as early as 2027 or late this year.
- DeepSeek is in talks to raise roughly $1.5 billion at a ~$71 billion valuation, followed by an IPO.[TechCrunch]
- Just a month ago, the company closed its first external funding round, raising over $7 billion at a valuation of roughly $50 billion.[TechCrunch]
- In June 2026, DeepSeek handled nearly 23% of all token traffic on enterprise AI gateway Vercel, second only to Anthropic's 32%.[TechCrunch]
- Investors include Tencent and the Beijing National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.[TechCrunch]
- DeepSeek's cloud services run on Huawei chips, and despite U.S. export restrictions, its open-source models are closing the performance gap with top U.S. AI labs.[TechCrunch]
- As of the close on July 14, 2026, Nvidia (NVDA) was at $211.80, up 4.06% from the prior close. U.S. markets were closed for a holiday, with no real-time trading.
Chinese large-language model developer DeepSeek is preparing a new funding round, aiming to raise roughly $1.5 billion at a valuation of about $71 billion, with an IPO as early as 2027 or late this year, according to Bloomberg.[TechCrunch] The news comes just a month after the company closed its first external funding round. As of the close on July 14, 2026, Nvidia (NVDA) was at $211.80, up 4.06% from the prior close of $203.53. U.S. markets were closed for a holiday, with no real-time trading.
Valuation Doubles, Fundraising Pace Accelerates
Founded in 2023, DeepSeek burst onto the scene in early 2025 with AI technology that was more efficient and cost-effective than comparable U.S. models.[TechCrunch] According to Reuters, the company is considering raising more capital shortly after its first round.[Reuters] A month ago, DeepSeek closed a funding round of over $7 billion at a valuation of roughly $50 billion, its first-ever injection of outside capital.[TechCrunch] If the new round goes through, its valuation would be roughly 42% higher than last month.
Market Share and Performance
DeepSeek's user base is growing fast. In June 2026, the company reported that it handled nearly 23% of all token traffic on enterprise AI gateway Vercel, compared to Anthropic's 32%.[TechCrunch] Despite ongoing U.S. chip export restrictions on China, DeepSeek has shown that the gap between Chinese open-source models and top U.S. AI labs is narrowing.[TechCrunch] Its cloud services run on chips made by Huawei.
Investors and Competitive Landscape
According to Bloomberg, DeepSeek's investors include Tencent and the Beijing National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.[TechCrunch] Meanwhile, U.S. open-source AI model developers are also moving aggressively. For example, U.S. startup Reflection AI recently signed a $1 billion compute deal with European AI infrastructure company Nebius to secure Nvidia's latest chips.[TechCrunch] Separately, another Chinese AI company, Z.ai, has drawn attention with its open-source model GLM-5.2, which supports a 1-million-token context window, performs on par with OpenAI's GPT-5.5 and Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8, and is free to use.[Business Insider]
Market Reaction and What's Next
As of the close on July 14, 2026, Nvidia (NVDA) was at $211.80, up 4.06% from the prior close. U.S. markets were closed for a holiday, with no real-time trading. DeepSeek's IPO plans and its demand for AI chips could have long-term implications for hardware suppliers like Nvidia. DeepSeek has not commented on the fundraising or IPO rumors.[TechCrunch]
Sources
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, trading advice, or any guarantee of returns.
