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Physix Frontier · News Briefing Card (Leiphone · Nov 2, 2026)

DeepSeek raises RMB 105.5B in round two; vivo, Meituan, Xiaohongshu among ~30 backers

KEY FACTS

  • DeepSeek raised RMB 105.5 billion in its second funding round, roughly USD 15.8 billion.
  • Nearly 30 investors joined this round, with state-owned capital accounting for about 27%, up from just 2% in the first round.
  • Tencent invested RMB 10 billion in each of the two rounds, while CATL and Zeng Yuqun together put in RMB 15 billion.
  • Industry backers include vivo, Meituan, Xiaohongshu, ChangXin Memory Technologies and SMIC.
  • Foreign media reported that chip price hikes and AI bubble concerns prompted DeepSeek to double its fundraising target.

KEY DATA

RMB 105.5 billionSecond-round funding
about USD 15.8 billionUSD equivalent
nearly 30Number of investors
about 27%State-owned capital share

PHYSIX OBSERVATION

With the state-owned share jumping from 2% to 27%, compounded by Tencent and CATL raising their stakes and industry players from phones, retail and memory joining in, DeepSeek's shareholder base has shifted from purely market-driven to binding strategic resources. Chip price hikes forcing the raise to double shows that compute reserves are becoming a hard threshold in the large-model race, and the cost for smaller players to keep up is higher.

Source: Leiphone report