DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that spent most of its existence bootstrapping on principle, apparently likes the taste of outside money. The startup is in discussions for a new funding round that would value it at $71 billion on a pre-money basis, according to the Financial Times.

That figure represents a staggering jump from the company’s post-money valuation of over $50 billion, which it hit just weeks ago after closing its first-ever external financing round in mid-June.

From bootstrapped to billions in record time

DeepSeek, founded by Liang Wenfeng, had historically refused outside capital. The company built its open-source large language models entirely without external investors.

That changed in 2026. In May, the company started shopping for its first outside capital, targeting valuations in the $45 billion to $50 billion range. By mid-June, it had closed a round raising over $7.4 billion.

The investor list included Tencent, which chipped in roughly $1.5 billion, while battery giant CATL also participated. Founder Liang Wenfeng personally invested approximately $3 billion.

Now, barely a month later, the company is already circling back for more. The $71 billion pre-money valuation would represent a roughly 42% premium over the post-money valuation from the June round.

China’s AI arms race heats up

DeepSeek has rapidly established itself as China’s most valuable AI startup, though it still trails US rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in terms of overall valuation.

DeepSeek first grabbed international headlines in early 2025 when its models demonstrated performance that rivaled far more expensive Western competitors. The company achieved this while reportedly operating under US chip export restrictions, which limited its access to cutting-edge Nvidia hardware.

What this means for investors

DeepSeek’s rapid re-pricing, from $45 billion to $50 billion to potentially $71 billion in under two months, suggests that investor appetite for top-tier AI plays remains essentially insatiable, even outside the US.

No confirmed details have emerged about the timing or participants of the $71 billion round. No crypto-native sources have covered DeepSeek’s funding activities or associated tokens.