DeepSeek closes in on $45B valuation in round led by China's Big Fund with Tencent and Alibaba

DeepSeek is closing a funding round at nearly $45B — roughly 4x its valuation two weeks earlier — led by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund ('Big Fund') with participation from Tencent and Alibaba. The company plans to scale compute, hire aggressively, and deepen Huawei chip compatibility to reduce NVIDIA reliance.