Why Is DeepSeek Raising Another $7 Billion
Just Months After Its First Round?

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab behind the open-weight R1 and V4 models, has restarted talks for a second funding round targeting roughly 50 billion yuan (~$7 billion) at a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion yuan (~$70 billion) — up 43% from its first round two months ago. If it closes, DeepSeek will have raised over $14 billion in under five months. This piece covers the April–August 2026 timeline, Round 1 vs Round 2 tables, compute spend thesis, voting-rights structure, 140–150x P/S debate, peer comparison with Moonshot / Zhipu / MiniMax, STAR Market context, a six-step verification checklist, and FAQ. Cross-read with our 2026 AI funding supercycle piece and DeepSeek custom-chip coverage. Hosting options at NOVAKVM pricing.

[ SECTION_01 ] // TIMELINE From "no fundraising" to a $70 billion valuation in four months

• April 2026: A corporate filing shows DeepSeek increased its registered capital and founder Liang Wenfeng personally subscribed to the new shares, raising his direct stake from 1% to 34%. Combined with an entity he controls, his total control over the operating company reached roughly 84.29% — the ownership structure that would later shape how outside capital entered. That same month, DeepSeek opened its first-ever external funding round and previewed its V4 model series.
• June 2026: The first round closed at roughly 50 billion yuan (~$7.4 billion), giving DeepSeek a post-money valuation of more than 350 billion yuan (reported in a range of $52–59 billion across sources) — the largest first-round raise in Chinese AI history. Liang personally contributed 20 billion yuan; Tencent put in 10 billion yuan, CATL 5 billion yuan, with JD.com, NetEase, IDG Capital and China's National AI Industry Investment Fund also participating.
• July 14–17, 2026: Multiple outlets reported DeepSeek had begun preparing a STAR Market (Shanghai) IPO and was simultaneously in talks for a second round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $71 billion (~480 billion yuan) — about 37% above the first round's post-money value. This is also when DeepSeek's annualized revenue (ARR) — reportedly $400–500 million, mostly from API token usage — became public for the first time.
• July 25–26, 2026: The second-round talks abruptly paused. According to Bloomberg and other outlets, part of the reason was that founder Liang Wenfeng was unhappy that comments he made during closed-door investor meetings had circulated online; DeepSeek reportedly told some investors on the standby list to hold off on signing.
• August 4–5, 2026: Dealmakers cited by Chinese business magazine Caijing said the round had restarted, still targeting 50 billion yuan at a pre-money valuation of roughly 500 billion yuan (~$70 billion), with signing expected in late August. Both DeepSeek and the investors reportedly want to keep this round low-profile.

Caveat: every figure above about the second round — the amount, the valuation, the timeline — comes from anonymous dealmakers cited by Chinese financial media, not from an official DeepSeek statement. Terms could still shift before signing.

Pain points that still trip readers and operators:

• Unconfirmed numbers: The $70B pre-money and ~$7B target are still "in talks," not closed.
• Pre-money vs post-money mix-ups: Round 1 is usually quoted post-money (>350B yuan); Round 2 is quoted pre-money (~500B yuan). The ~43% step-up only makes sense with those labels aligned.
• Most investors do not get a vote: Round 1 outside capital largely entered via a Liang-controlled LP with a five-year lock-up.
• Valuation-to-revenue gap: Implied P/S around 140–150x vs OpenAI ~65x and Anthropic ~21x (dealmaker estimates).
• The real bill is compute: Fundraising cadence tracks data-center, chip, and headcount expansion more than headline valuation games.

[ SECTION_02 ] // DEAL_MATRIX The numbers at a glance: Round 1 vs Round 2

Tables below summarize reported figures. Round 2 values are negotiation references — re-check any formal announcement after late August.

If Round 2 closes, DeepSeek will have raised over $14 billion in under five months — the hard order-of-magnitude anchor behind the "capital frenzy" narrative.

[ SECTION_03 ] // VALUATION Inside the deal: compute bills, voting rights, and peer multiples

The real bill is compute, not headlines. Shortly after closing its first round, DeepSeek said it would double headcount across data-center and AI-agent teams, and Reuters reported it was hiring chip-design engineers to develop its own AI inference chips. Industry analysts estimate that for every 10 billion yuan DeepSeek raises, roughly 7 billion yuan goes straight into compute-related spending — chips, data centers, bandwidth, liquid cooling. The fundraising cadence is a race to keep pace with its own compute buildout. More chip context: DeepSeek custom silicon piece.

Most investors don't get a vote. In the first round, most outside capital flowed in through a limited partnership controlled by Liang Wenfeng, meaning those investors received no voting rights and are locked in for five years. The one exception: China's National AI Industry Investment Fund, which invested directly and got both voting rights and no lock-up. This structure keeps Liang's control near 84% — and it's exactly the kind of detail that has drawn scrutiny from outlets like Forbes about governance and state influence, even as the company serves a global user base.

A 148x price-to-sales ratio is either a bet on the future — or a red flag. At a $70 billion pre-money valuation against $400–500 million in ARR, DeepSeek's implied P/S ratio sits around 140–150x, dwarfing OpenAI's ~65x and Anthropic's ~21x. One dealmaker's assessment, translated from Chinese coverage, is blunt: "Pricing a foundation-model company is fundamentally an options bet, not a cash-flow valuation." Investors aren't pricing today's revenue — they're pricing the chance that DeepSeek becomes infrastructure-level in China's compute ecosystem and enterprise agent market.

The pattern: DeepSeek and Moonshot — the two still-private frontrunners — both carry P/S multiples around 140–150x, well above what already-listed Zhipu and MiniMax trade at. Private-market investors are, for now, paying a steeper premium for the two labs that haven't yet faced public-market scrutiny.

Controversy snapshot:

• Leaked closed-door transcript: The July pause was reportedly triggered by Liang's frustration that remarks from first-round investor meetings spread online.
• Voting-rights structure: Most external investors have no vote and a five-year lock-up; only the state-backed National AI Industry Investment Fund gets direct voting rights with no lock-up. Governance questions remain unresolved.
• Valuation-to-revenue gap: Even top-tier high-growth SaaS typically trades at 30–50x. Whether this holds depends on converting technical lead into scaled enterprise revenue after a STAR Market listing — still untested.

Why it matters: On June 17, 2026, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced at the Lujiazui Forum that it was expanding its "fifth listing standard" on the STAR Market to cover AI companies — meaning a company doesn't need to be profitable, or even have significant revenue, to file, as long as its technology is strong enough. That rule change is the regulatory backdrop making DeepSeek's planned late-2026 IPO filing (targeting a 2027 listing) plausible. For years DeepSeek was funded entirely by Liang's quant fund High-Flyer under a "no fundraising, no IPO, no commercialization" policy — ended by the June 2026 first round. Globally, OpenAI was reportedly valued at $300 billion in 2025, and Anthropic's valuation reportedly surpassed OpenAI's by June 2026. Compute self-reliance — in-house inference chips and owned data centers — is the subtext explaining why a company with comparatively modest revenue still needs to raise this fast.

[ SECTION_04 ] // CHECKLIST Six steps to verify DeepSeek Round 2 claims before you act on them

1. Separate closed from in-talks: Round 1 (~50B yuan) closed in June 2026. Round 2's ~50B yuan target and ~500B yuan pre-money remain media-sourced negotiation figures — do not label them "raised" or "closed" in budgets or external decks.
2. Align pre-money and post-money labels: Quote the step-up as Round 1 post-money >350B yuan → Round 2 pre-money ~500B yuan (~+43%). Do not mash mismatched bases into a fake "doubling."
3. Source-tag ARR and P/S separately: $400–500M ARR and 140–150x P/S are media-relayed; "gross margin >50%" is unaudited. Internal memos should carry an "unconfirmed" flag.
4. Read the voting-rights structure: Most outside investors have no vote and a five-year lock-up; the National AI Industry Investment Fund is the exception. Do not assume capital equals board control.
5. Map fundraising headlines to compute lead times: If your team depends on DeepSeek APIs or is planning inference capacity, use the "about 70 of every 100 yuan raised goes to compute" analytical frame to plan chip, facility, and bandwidth timelines — not just valuation headlines.
6. Stabilize a 24/7 agent host: Funding news spikes API and agent experiment traffic; laptop sleep kills long jobs and OAuth. For always-on macOS orchestration, compare pricing, spin up a trial on the order page, and use the help center for remote sessions.

status check — treat Round 2 as UNCONFIRMED until official notice
round_1     closed 2026-06  ~50B CNY post-money >350B CNY
round_2     talks restarted 2026-08-04/05  target ~50B CNY
pre_money   ~500B CNY (~$70B)  reported by Caijing dealmakers
do_not      label $70B / 5000亿 as "raised" or "closed"
next_gate   late-Aug 2026 signing window (planned, fluid)

[ SECTION_05 ] // FACTS_FAQ Hard numbers, FAQ, and a stable Mac host wrap-up

• Round 2 target raise: ~50B yuan, planned late-August 2026 signing (Caijing via dealmakers; unconfirmed).
• Pre-money valuation: ~500B yuan (~$70B), ~+43% vs Round 1 post-money.
• Combined scale: If Round 2 closes, >100B yuan (~$14B) across two rounds in under five months.
• ARR / P/S: ~$400–500M ARR (mostly API tokens); implied P/S ~140–150x.
• Control: Liang ~84.29% control; most external investors no vote + five-year lock-up.
• IPO path: STAR Market prep, file by end-2026, target 2027 listing; enabled by fifth listing standard expansion to AI.

FAQ:

• Has Round 2 closed? Not yet — still in negotiation, targeting late August 2026.
• Why raise again so soon? Data centers, in-house AI chips, and agent/infrastructure headcount outpacing Round 1 proceeds.
• Is $70B confirmed? No — anonymous dealmakers via Caijing, not an official DeepSeek statement.
• Do investors get more control? Not necessarily; Round 1 left most outsiders without votes.
• When might it list, and can internationals buy? STAR Market filing targeted by end-2026 / 2027 debut; this private round is institutional-only, and retail access would likely be indirect.

Public sources used while writing; if upstream pages update, treat the linked originals as authoritative. Most figures come from anonymous sources and media reports rather than official company disclosures.

https://wallstreetcn.com (search Chinese coverage of the restarted round)

https://api-docs.deepseek.com

https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai

Real limits of common substitutes: (1) Treating the $70B figure as a closed fact in external materials risks credibility if terms shift. (2) Buying a high-end local inference box to "chase the news" usually loses to weekly rental on idle depreciation — and still does not pay DeepSeek's API compute bill. (3) Laptop sleep and OAuth expiry break 24/7 agent evals right when funding headlines spike experiment traffic.

For teams that need dedicated Apple Silicon, 24/7 uptime, and day/week/month elasticity to run DeepSeek-API-driven agents and same-host iOS CI on a stable macOS node, NOVAKVM bare-metal Mac Mini cloud rental is usually the better fit: keep model inference on the API, keep orchestration and evaluation on an always-on bare-metal host. Compare tiers on the pricing page, start a trial on the order page, and use the help center for remote access.