Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group are reportedly in talks to invest in artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek. This financing is DeepSeek’s first external financing since its establishment. Negotiations are still ongoing, and the valuation target has been raised from the initial US$10 billion to more than US$20 billion (approximately RMB 136.5 billion).
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by quantitative hedge fund Huan Fang Quantitative. It has rapidly emerged in the industry with its low-cost, open-source AI model route. Unlike MiniMax, Zhipu and other listed companies in the same track, DeepSeek has not yet generated significant revenue. All its models are open source, and its chatbots are also open to users for free. Analysts believe that investments by Tencent and Alibaba can not only hedge the risks of their own AI research and development, but also open a direct channel for future in-depth technical cooperation.
Affected by this news, Alibaba's US stock price rose sharply before the market opened, with an increase of more than 2%. However, so far, Tencent, Alibaba and DeepSeek have not officially responded to this matter.