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Until recently, DeepSeek were self-financed (it was a spin-out from a hedge fund). They just raised ~50million RMB (US$7bn), and according to media [0] (which a
by nmfisher 3mo ago
Until recently, DeepSeek were self-financed (it was a spin-out from a hedge fund). They just raised ~50million RMB (US$7bn), and according to media [0] (which admittedly can be unreliable), the lead investors were:
1) The CEO himself
2) Tencent
3) CALT (the battery company)
4) NetEase (internet/media company)
5) JD.com (ecommerce)
6) Chinese investment firms
What are they expecting in return? I'd say the same thing that all those investors in OpenAI and Anthropic are expecting - profit.
[0] https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/vcpe/2026-06-11/doc-iniazihs2324474.shtml https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/vcpe/2026-06-11/doc-iniazi...
- disgruntledphd2 3mo agoMy understanding of Deepseeks raise is that it's basically do that they can give equity grants, as they were losing lots of people to competitors.
- baxtr 3mo agoIf they’re expecting profits like the VC backed US companies how come they behave so differently?
- nmfisher 3mo agoThe investment round only closed in the last few weeks, it would have had zero influence on anything up to & including DeepSeek V4. Whether that now changes, who knows. It appears the CEO will remain the largest investor/shareholder, though, so I'm hoping not much changes.