DeepSeek reportedly raises about $15 billion with Tencent and CATL, eyes Shanghai IPO

DeepSeek, long known for operating on modest funding and producing strikingly cheap models, has reportedly raised about $15 billion. Backers include Tencent and CATL, the battery giant. Alibaba participated in early talks but did not invest, according to the reports. The money is earmarked for infrastructure and for competing directly with OpenAI and Anthropic.

Reports also say DeepSeek is preparing a near-term IPO in Shanghai. That would make it one of the first frontier-scale Chinese labs subject to public-market disclosure.

The raise comes as DeepSeek's products gain traction. V4.1-Flash posted sizable benchmark gains this month, and its Search & Fetch APIs launched at aggressive prices. Users on r/DeepSeek remark that 2M tokens cost them about $0.50, and llama.cpp added V4.1-Flash support today.

Community debate centers on whether cheap open releases survive investor and public-market pressure. The figures come from press reports citing Bloomberg, not company confirmation.