DeepSeek Nears a $12 Billion Funding Round With Tencent and CATL Backing

DeepSeek is reportedly close to raising at least 80 billion yuan, roughly $12 billion, in a funding round that includes Tencent and the battery maker CATL. Bloomberg first reported the figures on October 6, citing people familiar with the matter. The amount is well above the company's original target of about 50 billion yuan, which suggests investor demand has grown since the talks began. No deal has been announced.

The numbers so far.

TechNode, summarising the report on October 8, says signed term sheets could push the total toward 100 billion yuan, although terms may still change. Converted at the rate Reuters uses, 80 billion yuan is about $11.93 billion. Neither Bloomberg nor TechNode reports a valuation, so the price of any stake is unknown. Tencent and CATL are described as among the largest committed investors, but no other backers have been named in the coverage.

Verification and silence.

Reuters carried the same figures but said it could not immediately verify the Bloomberg report, and that caveat is the most important detail in the coverage. According to The Star's version of the Reuters story, DeepSeek, Tencent and CATL did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company has not confirmed the round through any official channel. That gap matters because the figures rest on anonymous sources, and funding talks often change size or structure before a deal closes. Until a company or investor confirms the amount, the round should be treated as in progress.

What the money could be used for.

TechNode reports that DeepSeek plans to restructure once the financing is complete, in preparation for a possible initial public offering in early 2027. The reports do not say how the company would spend the money, whether on computing capacity, hiring or model training. DeepSeek is one of the Chinese developers releasing open-weight models, which means its technical choices affect developers well beyond China. A larger balance sheet could shape how quickly it releases new models and how widely they are used. Its rivals in China, including Alibaba's Qwen and Moonshot's Kimi, also release open-weight models, so the round will be read as a signal of how the company plans to compete.

What is still unknown.

Three things remain open: the final amount, the valuation, and whether the round closes before the planned restructuring. The coverage also does not say how much control or board influence the new investors would gain. Tencent and CATL are both large Chinese companies, so the deal could draw attention from regulators in several countries, but no regulatory step has been reported. If the company announces the round, the timing may land during Beijing business hours, and readers elsewhere can check the local start time with the free time converter at /en/timeconverter.