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DeepSeek Closes First Outside Round of $7.4B, Founder Keeps Control

June 18, 2026 at 15:30 EDT

Funding & M&A
Foundation Models
Open Source

DeepSeek, the Hangzhou-based AI lab, closed its first outside funding round around June 16, 2026, raising more than 5 billion yuan (over $7.4 billion) at a post-money valuation above $50 billion, while founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng retained control through an unusual deal structure.

June 2026 · DeepSeek

DeepSeek Raises $7.4B at a $50B+ Valuation — On the Founder's Terms

In its first-ever external round, the Chinese AI startup pulled in over 5 billion yuan under a rare structure that channels most investors through a partnership run by founder Liang Wenfeng — keeping his control intact.

$7.4B

Raised in the first external round (over 5bn yuan)

$50B+

Post-money valuation (cited $52–59B)

<10

Outside investors took part; 5-year lock-up

Who put in the money

Largest single backer: the founder himself. Bars scaled to yuan committed.

¥2.0bn

Liang Wenfeng
~$2.94B · founder

¥1.0bn

Tencent

¥0.5bn

CATL

Others
NetEase · JD · IDG · Big Fund

The unusual deal structure

Most investors

Capital routed through an LP managed by the founder
No voting rights granted
5-year lock-up on selling shares

The one exception

China's national "Big Fund"
Acquired shares directly
Retains its voting rights

Why it matters: preserving founder control removes short-term exit pressure, enabling a long-term pursuit of AGI.

DeepSeek-R1 benchmark performance

MoE architecture · 671B total / ~37B active parameters — matching or topping o1 on math & reasoning.

AIME 202479.8%

MATH-50097.3%

MMLU90.8%

Praised for

Coding, math & logic tasks
Low-cost API + open distilled versions that run on personal PCs
A flagship of open-source AI

Concerns raised

Censorship & data-privacy worries
Weaker resistance to jailbreaks
Gaps vs top U.S. frontier models

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