DeepSeek Denied Reports of Seeking External Funding

According to The Information, DeepSeek is considering raising external funding for the first time, with giants such as Alibaba and CIC showing interest in investing. However, in response to this disclosure, DeepSeek made a statement on Thursday, explicitly stating that these are “purely rumors”.

According to The Information‘s report, the reason DeepSeek is considering financing is primarily due to the huge success of its AI model in the market, with a significant increase in user demand. In order to better meet this demand, internal discussions within the company have been initiated regarding increasing resource allocation, leading to the topic of whether to bring in more investors. The report also reveals that executives from DeepSeek and its parent company, Fantuan Quantitative, are deeply discussing the company’s future development direction, particularly regarding the shift from a “research-driven” model to establishing a profitable business.

Despite the financing rumors being debunked as misinformation, DeepSeek’s achievements in the field of AI have undoubtedly garnered widespread attention in the industry. The success of its AI model has not only earned the company a good market reputation but also laid a solid foundation for future development. While there is currently no clear financing plan, many industry insiders believe that with the continuous growth in market demand, DeepSeek may choose to further accelerate its business expansion and technological innovation through financing.

This company, founded less than two years ago by the quantitative asset management giant Fantuan Quantitative, is one of the “Hangzhou Six Tigers.” With outstanding performance in large models such as DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, it has caused a significant impact in the AI field both domestically and internationally.

Currently, DeepSeek has become the fastest application to surpass 30 million daily active users, achieving this milestone in just 12 days, compared to ChatGPT, which rewrote AI history, taking 11 months to reach a similar user scale. Furthermore, DeepSeek also ranks first in app stores in 140 countries.

Before DeepSeek gained popularity, its funding primarily came from internal resources supported by Fantuan Quantitative and government research grants. The company’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, previously focused on research and reportedly did not agree with venture capitalists who aimed for rapid commercialization of products, thus rejecting cooperation with many investment institutions.

There have been rumors in the market about Alibaba and state-owned funds showing interest in investing in DeepSeek, with reports even suggesting that Alibaba planned to invest $1 billion for a 10% stake at a $10 billion valuation. This news was later denied by an Alibaba vice president.

If DeepSeek opens up to financing, it is expected to attract a large number of investment institutions. For investors, this is a rare investment opportunity in recent years and a significant challenge with considerable investment thresholds.

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