Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings (0700) and Alibaba Group (9988) are in discussions to invest in artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing four people with knowledge of the conversations.
DeepSeek, owned by Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management, is seeking to raise funding at a valuation of more than US$20 billion(HK$156 billion), after its initial discussions with prospective investors generated immense interest, the report said, citing one of the people.
Alibaba, Tencent and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
The Information reported on Friday that DeepSeek started talks to raise outside capital for the first time, targeting to raise at least US$300 million at a valuation of at least US$10 billion.
The potential fundraising underscores the intense capital requirements for developing and running top-of-the-line AI models amid the rise of advanced reasoning and agentic bots.
The talks are still underway and both the valuation and the amount of capital to be raised could still change, according to the report.
REUTERS
