Deep. Seek set to net over $12b in new fundraising, source says
“Chinese AI startup Deep. Seek is set to raise more than 80 billion yuan ($11.93 billion) in its latest funding round, said one person with knowledge of the matter, as the firm builds up a war chest of…”
Seek kicked off the fundraising in July targeting a valuation of 500 billion yuan ($74 billion), a month after raising about $7.4 billion in its maiden external funding round, Reuters reported. The second fundraising has drawn massive interest from existing and new investors and the capital committed exceeds Deep.
Seek's original target of 50 billion yuan, said the source. Deep. Seek is expected to wrap up the fundraising in October, said the person and a second source with knowledge of the matter.
Both sources declined to be identified as the information was confidential. Deep. Seek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
"Stay connected with Aman-e-Pakistan for ongoing live reporting and verified investigative updates."
Bloomberg first reported on Tuesday that Deep. Seek is close to securing at least 80 billion yuan in the fundraising, whose final tally could reach 100 billion, citing sources. Read More:A taste of home in orbit: How China keeps its astronauts well-fed.
Chinese battery maker CATL and Tencent Holdings have committed amounts that are among the largest in the current funding round, it added. Tencent and CATL did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Deep.
Seek recentlypartneredwith Huawei Technologies to develop programming tools optimised for the latter's Ascend AI chips, highlighting China's push to reduce reliance on Nvidia's(NVDA.O), opens new tabAI ecosystem. Last month, thecompanyreleased its latest model, Deep. Seek-V4.1-Flash, which it said was designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput and scaling to larger models.
Deep. Seek had hired CITIC Securities topreparefor a potential STAR Market initial public offering, though the timing, valuation and fundraising size remain undecided, Reuters reported last month.
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