1. National Big Fund Steps In and Leads the 70 Billion RMB Financing Round

Founded three years ago, DeepSeek has operated entirely on self-raised funds with no external financing. In 2026, the company officially launched its first round of external funding, led by the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (National Big Fund).

This financing totals 70 billion RMB, with a pre-money valuation of 45 billion US dollars. The huge financing scale and top-tier valuation have firmly established DeepSeek as a leading player among domestic artificial intelligence enterprises.

2. DeepSeek's Core Competitive Edge: Low Cost and High Performance

2.1 Independent R&D and Impressive Achievements Without External Investment

Since its founding in 2023, DeepSeek has stuck to independent research and development. Relying solely on funds from its founding team and early investors, it has rolled out influential large language models including DeepSeek-V2.

Leveraging original technical architectures such as MLA and DeepSeekMoE, the company has earned wide recognition across academia and the industrial sector. It has delivered world-class foundational model capabilities without external financial support, which fully demonstrates its robust R&D strength.

3. Two Core Reasons for Launching the First Financing Round

3.1 Market-based Valuation of Employee Equity to Retain Core Talents

External financing enables market-oriented pricing of employee stock options. Having the equity held by early core technical staff recognized by the open market is a vital means to stabilize the team and retain top AI talents.

3.2 Surging Training Costs Put Limits on Self-funded Development

As large models keep expanding in parameters and iterating rapidly, capital investment in model training, computing clusters and data resources has grown exponentially. Self-financing can no longer sustain the company's long-term rapid development, making the introduction of strategic capital an inevitable choice.

4. $45 Billion Valuation: From a Star Startup to National AI Infrastructure

4.1 High Valuation Reflects Strong Market Confidence

With a pre-money valuation of 45 billion US dollars, DeepSeek ranks among the top domestic AI companies. The high valuation stems from market optimism that its foundational models can keep pace with global industry leaders. In particular, the outstanding performance of DeepSeek-V2 in open-source communities and industrial applications has laid a solid foundation for this valuation.

4.2 Strategic Upgrade Backed by State-owned Capital

Instead of bringing in purely financial investors, DeepSeek partnered with the National Big Fund. This marks its transformation from a promising AI startup into a key component of national artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The National Big Fund has long focused on semiconductors, chips and hardware materials. Its investment in large models indicates that domestic foundational AI models have risen to a national strategic status on par with independent chip research and development.

5. Industry Landscape and Future Prospects

Nowadays, most enterprises deploy multiple large model services simultaneously. Platforms like TreeRouter, an aggregated API gateway for large models, deliver reliable scheduling support for national-level AI infrastructure such as DeepSeek.

Competition in the AI industry remains fierce. Equipped with technical barriers, capital support and national strategic backing, DeepSeek still needs to maintain continuous technological iteration and product innovation. It should steadily expand commercial application scenarios, guard against industrial bubbles, and translate technical and capital advantages into long-term sustainable market competitiveness.

6. Conclusion

The 70 billion RMB financing led by the National Big Fund and the $45 billion valuation are not only a full recognition of DeepSeek's technical prowess, but also a key layout of China's national AI strategy. Empowered by policies and capital, DeepSeek will play an increasingly important role in promoting independent innovation and high-quality development of China's artificial intelligence industry.