DeepSeek closes $7bn-plus round with an unusual structure

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab that unsettled the industry with a cheap, capable model last year, has closed its first round of outside funding, raising roughly 50 billion yuan, about $7bn, in a deal whose structure is as notable as its size. The valuation lands between $52bn and $59bn, according to Reuters.

The unusual part is who is putting in the most. Founder Liang Wenfeng is committing 20 billion yuan of his own money, a controlling share of the raise, which keeps him firmly in charge of a company that until this year had taken no external venture capital at all.

DeepSeek had been funded entirely from the balance sheet of High-Flyer, the quantitative hedge fund Liang also founded, and the new round is less an opening of the doors than a carefully managed crack.

The largest outside backers are names that carry weight in China’s tech and industrial...

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