DeepSeek Abruptly Halts Fundraising After Founder’s Remarks Leak
July 26, 2026 (AI-translated from Korean; cites Bloomberg)
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup known for low-cost high-performance models, has abruptly halted its second round of fundraising, according to reports. The leak of a recording from a private investor meeting held by founder Liang Wenfeng is cited as the background.
Bloomberg reported on July 25, citing multiple sources, that DeepSeek verbally informed some investors set to participate in its second funding round that it would not sign investment contracts for the time being. It is unclear whether this applied to all prospective participants.
DeepSeek had planned to secure more than 10 billion yuan through the second round. The first funding round, completed in June, was worth about 7.4 billion — described as a record for a Chinese tech startup’s first raise. The second round reportedly aimed for a valuation above 480 billion yuan (~$70B+ range in local reporting).
Industry sources linked the halt to a leaked recording of Liang’s roughly 3-hour-44-minute May investor meeting, first detailed July 24 by China Business News and Securities Times. Bloomberg said Liang, who rarely appears publicly, was displeased by the leak.
Meeting remarks (as reported)
Liang said the only U.S.–China AI gap was computing resources such as Nvidia GPUs, argued Chinese chips would gradually replace imports within a year, and said Nvidia CUDA’s monopoly was crumbling. He framed DeepSeek’s long-term goal as AGI rather than building a super-app like ByteDance or Tencent, and said he chose investors aligned with that direction over higher price. Talent retention was called the top priority.
DeepSeek is also preparing IPO filings within the year, aiming for a Chinese mainland listing in 2027. Bloomberg Billionaires Index reportedly put Liang’s wealth near $36 billion after the first round.