The round reportedly required investors to forgo their voting rights and lock up funds for five years.

Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has raised more than $7.4bn at a $50bn-plus post money valuation, The Information reported today (16 June).

The highly anticipated round into one of China’s most valuable AI start-ups, however, comes with an unusual condition, the publication said, requiring investors to funnel their funds into a limited partnership managed by DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng rather than the company itself.

Investors’ funds are reportedly subject to a five-year lock up period and will not have voting rights. Wenfeng is also the founder of one of High-Flyer, one of China’s top hedge funds.

According to multiple reports from earlier this month, the funding round into DeepSeek was led by Tencent, which pitched in around $1.5bn, and battery giant Contemporary Amperex (CATL), which invested around $735m into the start-up. Tencent was reported to have proposed taking a 20pc stake in the company.

The $8bn state-backed National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Alibaba also reportedly took part in the round, with Wenfeng committing around $2.94bn into the company.

The Information has reported that the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund is the only exception to the unusual funding mechanism, retaining both voting rights and freedom from its funds being locked up.

The 2023-founded start-up shot to fame last year after it launched the R1 AI model, whose cost effectiveness and performance sent Silicon Valley leaders into uproar, igniting accusations of theft.

Its second major launch, called V4, came more than a year later called. The company claimed at the time that V4 “redefine[d] the state-of-the-art for open models”. V4 was hyped to be the company’s most important launch since R1, and V3 in late 2024.

Last week, Bloomberg reported on Chinese plans to build data centres across the country in a bid to further its leadership in AI. The nearly $300bn five-year build-out could represent China’s most aggressive plan yet to secure the future of its AI industry, the publication said.

China’s core AI industry – which boasts more than 6,200 companies – was valued at nearly $174bn in 2025, according to a government statement from March, while the market research firm International Data Corporation placed the Chinese AI market at some $63bn at the end of 2025, with estimates expecting it to cross the $200bn mark by 2029.

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