The investor list and valuation for DeepSeek's second funding round now have concrete numbers. The Information reported on October 30 that the round is worth RMB 105.5 billion, values the company at more than RMB 615.5 billion, and drew nearly 30 investors.
A week earlier, Bloomberg and Reuters had put the round at about RMB 100 billion but left the valuation blank. This time the gap is filled, and the roster is far more complete. DeepSeek has not publicly confirmed any figure for the round, so every amount below follows The Information and the domestic financial media that relayed it.
Who put in the money
Going by the reported list, the backers fall into roughly four groups:
| Category | Investors | Reported amount |
|---|---|---|
| Internet and industry giants | Tencent | RMB 10 billion, RMB 20 billion across two rounds |
| Industrial capital | CATL and chairman Zeng Yuqun | RMB 10 billion combined, up from RMB 5 billion in the first round |
| State-backed | China Mobile, China Telecom, CICC, CITIC Securities, China Life | RMB 2 billion to 8 billion each |
| Consumer and manufacturing | vivo, Meituan, Midea, Luxshare, Geely, Trip.com, Xiaohongshu | RMB 1 billion to 3 billion each |
Boyu Capital also put in RMB 3.5 billion this round, IDG Capital has contributed RMB 6.5 billion across the two rounds, and Lisi Capital, founded by Cao Xi, ranks among the larger contributors. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and its chairman Zhu Yiming, along with SMIC, are new names this round, with no amounts disclosed.
A memory maker and a foundry joining at the same time fits DeepSeek's push into domestic computing power. Earlier reports said it is building a large data center in Inner Mongolia and plans to deploy high-end domestic AI accelerators there. Whether the two companies' investments come with supply or cooperation arrangements is not addressed in the reports.
How the state-backed share changed
The most striking item in the reporting is the shift in structure. State-backed investors supplied about 27% of this round's money, compared with only about 2% of the roughly RMB 51 billion first round completed in June.
A rough calculation from those two percentages puts state-backed money at about RMB 1 billion in the first round and about RMB 28.5 billion in this one, an increase of more than twentyfold. China Mobile and China Telecom, the two carriers, have come in, and financial institutions such as CICC, CITIC Securities and China Life are on the list too, a clear break from the first round, which was led by the founder, Tencent and CATL.
At the time of the first round, reports said commercial investors such as Tencent and CATL would have no voting rights for five years after buying in. Whether the same arrangement applies to the nearly 30 newcomers this round is not explained in the reports.
What basis the RMB 615.5 billion uses
One valuation figure does not add up. Caijing reported on October 13 that this round's pre-money valuation was about RMB 500 billion. Adding the RMB 105.5 billion of new money gives a post-money figure near RMB 605.5 billion, about RMB 10 billion short of RMB 615.5 billion. There are several possible explanations: the pre-money valuation may have been raised later, the figure may include secondary share transfers, or some of the money may not yet be counted. Which one is true cannot be verified at present.
Treating RMB 615.5 billion as the post-money valuation, the new money buys roughly 17% of the company. The first round, at the reported valuation of about RMB 350 billion, bought roughly 15% for RMB 51 billion. Across both rounds, outside investors could hold around 30%. This is only an estimate based on the reported numbers and excludes any special equity arrangements.
On the revenue side, an August report said DeepSeek earned RMB 475 million in the first seven months of this year. With the valuation rising from about RMB 350 billion to more than RMB 600 billion in four months, these numbers suggest investors are pricing model capability and compute reserves, not current revenue, which cannot support such a valuation.
Sources: The Information and Gelonghui, checked for round size, valuation, state-backed share and each investor's contribution; CocoLoop; Caijing and Bloomberg, on this round's pre-money valuation and fundraising size.