Media: DeepSeek completed more than US$7 billion in financing using an unconventional transaction structure

According to reports, DeepSeek raised more than 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) in its first round of financing, with a valuation of more than $50 billion, and adopted a transaction structure designed to maintain founder control.

According to reports, this financing requires investors to inject funds into a limited partnership managed by DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, rather than directly investing in DeepSeek itself.

DeepSeek has not yet commented.

According to reports, investors are subject to a five-year lock-in period and do not have voting rights.

The media reported earlier that founder Liang Wenfeng personally invested 20 billion yuan in this round of financing. In addition, Tencent is considering investing 10 billion yuan, and CATL plans to invest 5 billion yuan, which will make them the largest external investors in this round of financing.