Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is reportedly planning to raise up to 50 billion yuan in a fresh funding round

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is planning to launch a fresh fundraising round at a valuation of about 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) ahead of a potential mainland initial public offering.The plan comes just weeks after the Hangzhou-based company, which drew global attention with its low-cost AI models in 2025, raised about $7.4 billion in June at a post-money valuation ‌of about 450 billion yuan, the people said. Filings by two Chinese investors later suggested DeepSeek was valued at 350.88 billion yuan, or around $52 billion.DeepSeek shook global technology markets last year after releasing models that appeared to rival leading US systems at lower training and ‌operating costs. Soon after its maiden fundraising round in June, DeepSeek said it planned to double staff across departments, including in areas ‌such as data centres and AI agents, systems capable of performing tasks with limited prompting. Some of those initiatives will require significant capital expenditure.Is Chinese AI companies gaining more attention ?