Just two days after the U.S. government directed federal civilian agencies to purge DeepSeek's AI technology from their systems due to security concerns, the Chinese AI lab has reportedly secured approximately $15 billion—roughly 100 billion yuan—in what ranks among the largest funding rounds ever seen in the country, according to Bloomberg.

Among the potential backers are Chinese battery manufacturer CATL and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, along with other investors, the report indicated.

This reported raise comes on the heels of DeepSeek's June investment round, in which it collected more than $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation. The company was also reportedly pursuing an additional $1.5 billion at a valuation of approximately $71 billion in July, with aspirations for a potential IPO in China as early as next year.

According to the report, the Hangzhou-based AI startup is significantly increasing its spending on AI infrastructure and open models targeting both domestic and international markets, even while confronting restrictions in the U.S. Its continued expansion could further heighten competition among domestic rivals.

This enormous funding round represents the latest indication of investors channeling billions into AI companies worldwide—including those in China—to compete in the global AI race. Chinese company Moonshot AI, developer of Kimi, secured $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May. Manus AI raised over $500 million earlier this month. Meanwhile, Chinese companies Zhipu AI (Z.ai) and MiniMax, both of which went public in Hong Kong in January, hold market capitalizations of roughly $29 billion and $7.2 billion, respectively, as of today.

DeepSeek was established in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, who had previously co-founded Chinese quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, which helped bankroll DeepSeek's early development. The AI startup captured global attention in early 2025 with its free-to-use, open-weight R1 reasoning model, challenging the dominance of U.S. AI companies. According to corporate ownership data analyzed by WireScreen, Liang still holds an estimated 81.6% stake in its Chinese operating entity following its earlier funding round.