DeepSeek IPO: Chasing a $71 Billion Valuation
DeepSeek is preparing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and aiming for a staggering $71 billion valuation, up from its previous raise of $50 billion just six weeks ago.
(July 15, 2026 – 2:11 pm)
Image by: DeepSeek
Background
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese AI lab is laying the groundwork for an IPO as early as this year, with a planned debut in 2027. Prior to its public listing, DeepSeek seeks a fresh private funding round.
The Hangzhou-based lab closed its initial outside investment round just weeks ago, raising approximately $7 billion and valuing the company at around $50 billion. Now, they are in discussions with new investors for a further round of financing targeting at least $1.5 billion, with some reports suggesting a second round aiming for roughly $7.4 billion.
Rapid Growth and Valuation
The proposed $71 billion valuation represents a significant jump from its $10 billion opening to external capital in April. Within days, Tencent and Alibaba expressed interest, driving the valuation past $20 billion. By May, DeepSeek was valued at nearly $45 billion, and the round closed at $50 billion in June.
Unique Funding Structure
The first round of investment from China’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund was unusual. Only this investor received direct equity and voting rights; all other backers’ funds were placed into a limited partnership controlled by founder Liang Wenfeng, with no voting rights and a five-year lock-up period. Despite this structure, the round reportedly attracted strong interest and was oversubscribed.
IPO Timeline and Expectations
DeepSeek is working on finalizing its financial statements by December, a necessary step before any official filing. The IPO could occur towards the end of 2026 or early in 2027, depending on when the financial data is ready.
The expected stock exchange for the listing is likely to be either mainland China or Hong Kong, following the successful listings of domestic rivals Zhipu and MiniMax. Zhipu’s shares have surged by nearly 1,600% since their January debut, a factor influencing DeepSeek’s decision to go public.
Investors’ Justification
DeepSeek’s valuation is not solely based on hype. The company generates annual revenue of approximately $400 million to $500 million, primarily from cloud access to its models. In June, DeepSeek accounted for nearly 23% of the enterprise AI gateway tokens processed by Vercel, second only to Anthropic.
This success is attributed to their open-source reasoning models, which perform comparably to frontier US labs, despite export controls limiting China’s access to advanced Nvidia chips.