DeepSeek Completes Record $7.4 Billion Funding Round with Special Structure to Secure Founder Liang Wenfeng's Control
DeepSeek has closed its first funding round, raising over 50 billion RMB ($7.4 billion) at a valuation exceeding $50 billion, marking the largest single round in China's AI industry. The deal employs a unique transaction structure where all external investments, except from the national AI industry fund, are injected into a limited partnership managed by founder Liang Wenfeng rather than directly into DeepSeek. Investors face a five-year lock-up period with no voting rights, a condition aimed at attracting long-term capital aligned with Liang's open-source philosophy. Liang personally invested 20 billion RMB, while Tencent is considering a 10 billion RMB investment and CATL plans 5 billion RMB as the largest external backers. Additionally, the team required verification of all limited partners' identities behind investment funds to prevent unknown capital inflows.