DeepSeek seeks nearly $50 billion from Chinese state investors
Business
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is in talks to raise close to $50 billion from state-backed investors, aiming to boost China's position in the global AI race.
This massive funding push is part of China's plan to catch up with US leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic, while also building up its own tech independence.
DeepSeek open-source model with paid compute
If this deal goes through, DeepSeek could be valued at around $50 billion, a big jump from earlier estimates.
The company mixed global tech (like NVIDIA chips) with homegrown partners such as Huawei, and made waves last year with a budget-friendly open-source AI model.
Unlike some rivals, DeepSeek lets users access its tools openly but charges for computing power behind the scenes.