DeepSeek's Funding Doubles to 100 Billion Yuan; Leads Investment in Humanoid Robot AI Startup

DeepSeek, the Chinese large language model developer founded by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng in 2023, is close to completing its second funding round with an amount that has doubled to approximately 100 billion yuan within just half a month. The company's pre-money valuation stands at 500 billion yuan. New industrial investors such as Stone Harbor Capital, Zhongxin Jujuyuan, CPE Source Peak, Junlian Capital, and Geely have joined this round, while existing shareholders including CATL, Tencent, IDG Capital, Lishi Capital, and Shixiang Capital continue to participate. CATL has notably doubled its investment to approximately 10 billion yuan from its initial 5 billion yuan contribution in the first round. Concurrently, DeepSeek is accelerating its listing plans. Since late August 2026, the company has engaged multiple investment banks and hired CITIC Securities as lead underwriter for a STAR Market listing. The target is to file by the end of this year and list in 2027. The sponsor is reviewing investors' backgrounds and requiring certain special funds to change to blind pool registration to avoid exceeding the 200-shareholder cap. Former Gaogao Ventures partner Yan Wentao joined DeepSeek as CFO in late September 2026. In a separate development, DeepSeek has agreed to lead the seed round investment in Winverse AI, a robotics AI startup founded by former Tencent Chief Scientist Hu Han this year. The funding amounts to tens of millions of dollars, valuing Winverse AI at approximately 400 million US dollars (31.2 billion HKD). Other investors include Meituan's Dragon Pearl Capital. This represents one of DeepSeek's largest investments in a startup since its founding, aiming to expand real-world applications such as humanoid robots for factories. Previously, DeepSeek also subscribed to a 2% stake in Unitree's Shanghai IPO to promote collaboration on embodied intelligence models.

The rapid doubling of DeepSeek's funding round within half a month signals strong institutional confidence in Chinese AI capabilities amid intensifying global competition. The company's strategic investments in robotics AI through Winverse AI and Unitree demonstrate a broader vision to extend large language model technology beyond digital interfaces into physical world applications, potentially reshaping industrial automation in Hong Kong's neighboring manufacturing hubs. The concurrent listing preparations on the STAR Market could establish DeepSeek as a benchmark for AI company valuations in Mainland China.