Company · Frontier labs
DeepSeek revenue, valuation & funding
DeepSeek closed a second funding round at a reported $74B pre-money valuation in October 2026, and its yearly revenue run rate reached a reported $1B in September 2026. It's private, and reports say it is preparing a Shanghai STAR Market IPO that could come as soon as 2027.
At a glance
- Valuation: $74B before the new money, in a second round of about 100 billion yuan reported closed in October 2026.
- Revenue: a $1B yearly run rate in September 2026, as reported by The Information. Run rates are what reporters were told and aren't audited.
- Status: private. No stock ticker. Reported to be preparing a Shanghai STAR Market IPO, possibly as soon as 2027.
- Founded: 17 July 2023 in Hangzhou, by Liang Wenfeng, as a spin-off of the High-Flyer hedge fund's AGI lab.
- CEO: Liang Wenfeng, its founder.
- Investors: Tencent, CATL, Meituan, Geely, Midea, NetEase, IDG Capital and others, plus Liang Wenfeng himself.
- Products: the DeepSeek V4 models, including V4-Pro and V4.1-Flash on its API, and a free chatbot app.
- Headquarters: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Wikipedia lists 160 employees in 2025.
Is DeepSeek public? Can you buy its stock?
No. DeepSeek is a private company. Its shares don't trade on any stock exchange and it has no ticker symbol.
In July 2026 Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported that DeepSeek had begun preparing for an IPO. It could list as soon as 2027. TechCrunch added that a listing could come as early as the end of 2026.
On 9 September 2026 market sources told 36Kr that DeepSeek had hired CITIC Securities to prepare a Shanghai STAR Market listing. CITIC was doing due diligence, and no formal listing-tutoring agreement had been signed. DeepSeek has not published a prospectus.
Until then its shares are held by its founder and its investors. This page reports facts and gives no investment advice.
Valuation, round by round
Its reported valuation rose from more than $50B after its first outside round in June 2026 to $74B before the new money in October 2026.
| Date | Valued at | Raised | Led by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $74B | about 100B | CATL and Tencent (among the biggest investors) | AI Weekly |
| Jun 2026 | $50B | $7.4B+ | Tencent | Silicon Republic |
Reports of the first round vary, from $50B-plus to $52B. Sacra's $51.82B figure, implied by a filing, isn't confirmed by a primary report.
Revenue
Its yearly run rate was reported at $400M to $500M in July 2026 and $1B in September. Liang Wenfeng gave the $1B figure at an investor meeting, The Information reported.
| Date | Figure | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | $1B | Reported | Venture Atlas |
| Jul 2026 | $400M | Reported | PYMNTS |
A run rate is a month's revenue times twelve, and it isn't audited revenue. Sacra estimates recognized revenue of 475M yuan ($70.7M) in the first seven months of 2026, and other outlets give a different figure.
How DeepSeek makes money
DeepSeek earns most of its revenue by charging businesses and developers for API access to its models, China Daily reports. Its chatbot is free on the web and in the app, with no limit on queries.
- Higher API prices. On August 16, 2026 it moved its API to peak and off-peak billing, with rises of roughly 50% to 1,100% per line item. Morph
- Prices lifted revenue. The Information reported in September 2026 that price increases of 2.3x to 4.5x helped lift its run rate. Venture Atlas
- API margins. Gross margin on the API business was 82.9% in the first seven months of 2026, as 36Kr carried The Information's reporting. 36Kr
- Free chatbot. The app and website cost nothing and have no query limit. Sacra
Products
- DeepSeek chatbot (10 January 2025). A free app for iOS and Android, first based on the DeepSeek-R1 model. Wikipedia
- DeepSeek V4 and V4-Pro (24 April 2026). Released together as its newest model family. Wikipedia
- deepseek-v4-pro (August 13, 2026). The DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 snapshot became generally available on the API. Morph
- deepseek-flash (September 10, 2026). DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash went live on the API under this name. Morph
- V4.1-Flash-1017 (October 17, 2026). deepseek-flash moved to this snapshot with pricing unchanged. Morph
Users and usage
DeepSeek Harness reported 1.54 million daily active users in November 2026, up by over one million in a month, ChainCatcher said.
DeepSeek has not published a user count for its chatbot or its API, and no large customers have been named.
Leadership
DeepSeek's website names no leadership team. Reports name two executives.
- Liang Wenfeng, founder and chief executive. He also manages the partnership that took investors' money in the June 2026 round. The Paypers
- Yan Wentao, its first chief financial officer, since 21 September 2026. He was a partner at GL Ventures. 36Kr
Who owns DeepSeek?
Its founder holds most of it. As of May 2024 Liang Wenfeng held 84% through two shell companies, Wikipedia says. Until 2026 it was funded only by High-Flyer Quant, the hedge fund he founded.
Outside investors joined in 2026. In the first round their money reportedly went into a partnership Liang manages, with a five-year lock-up and no voting rights, Silicon Republic says. The National AI Industry Investment Fund was the exception.
- Tencent led the first round, Silicon Republic says, and was reported to have proposed taking a 20pc stake. Silicon Republic
- Liang Wenfeng committed about RMB20 billion of his own capital in the June 2026 round, according to Sacra. Sacra
- Tencent and CATL were among the biggest investors in the second round, reported closed in October 2026. AI Weekly
- GigaDevice, Meituan, Geely, Midea, NetEase, Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital and IDG Capital were among more than 15 investors in the second round. CATL added 10 billion yuan on top of an earlier 5 billion yuan. AI Weekly
Competitors
China Daily wrote that the October financing would help DeepSeek compete with US rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
- OpenAI, named by China Daily as a US rival. China Daily
- Anthropic, also named by China Daily as a US rival. China Daily
- Baidu's ERNIE, named by Sacra as a competitor in China. Sacra
Timeline and latest news
From its founding to the latest reports, newest first.
- Oct 30, 2026Latest
The Information reported it closed a second round of about 100 billion yuan at a $74B pre-money valuation. AI Weekly - Oct 19, 2026Latest
A DHS notice barred civilian federal agencies from buying DeepSeek products. CyberScoop - Sep 24, 2026Latest
The Information reported its yearly run rate had reached $1B. Venture Atlas - Sep 21, 2026
Yan Wentao joined as its first chief financial officer. 36Kr - Sep 9, 2026
It was reported to have hired CITIC Securities to prepare a STAR Market IPO. 36Kr - Aug 16, 2026
It moved its API to peak and off-peak billing, with rises of roughly 50% to 1,100% per line item. Morph - Jul 14, 2026
Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported it had begun preparing for an IPO. TechCrunch - Jun 16, 2026
It raised more than $7.4B at a $50B-plus valuation in its first outside round. Silicon Republic - Apr 24, 2026
It released DeepSeek V4 and V4-Pro. Wikipedia - Feb 23, 2026
Anthropic accused it and two other Chinese labs of using fake accounts to distill Claude. TechCrunch - Jan 10, 2025
It released its chatbot app, based on DeepSeek-R1. Wikipedia - Jul 17, 2023
Liang Wenfeng founded it in Hangzhou as a spin-off of High-Flyer's AGI lab. Wikipedia
Legal matters
No court case against DeepSeek has been reported. Its legal matters are a US purchasing ban and accusations from two US labs.
- US Department of Homeland Security. A notice in the Federal Register around October 20, 2026 bars civilian federal agencies from buying DeepSeek products. It includes a letter from Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordering the exclusion on June 26. Agencies can ask for exceptions, and other outlets give a different order date. CyberScoop
- [Anthropic](/companies/anthropic/) accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax on February 23, 2026 of setting up more than 24,000 fake Claude accounts to distill Claude. TechCrunch reports no lawsuit. TechCrunch
- [OpenAI](/companies/openai/) sent a memo to House lawmakers in February 2026 accusing DeepSeek of using distillation to mimic its products. TechCrunch
In their own words, and what followed
What people said about the business, with the minute they said it, and what was reported after.
Aidan Gomez on Newcomer Pod · Jun 26, 2026
“We see DeepSeek raising this enormous round.”
15:15 Chinese models are progressing beyond distillation
Reported after
In October 2026 The Information reported that DeepSeek closed a second round of about 100 billion yuan at a $74B pre-money valuation. AI Weekly
Aidan Gomez on Newcomer Pod · Jun 26, 2026
“If you're willing to use, like, DeepSeek's API or Alibaba's API”
6:08 Self-hosting open models can cost more than it appears
Reported after
On August 16, 2026 DeepSeek moved its API to peak and off-peak billing, with rises of roughly 50% to 1,100% per line item. Morph
Marc Andreessen on a16z Podcast · Jan 7, 2026
“this was not a national champion tech company at the time that DeepSeek was released.”
29:50 DeepSeek showed frontier work can come from outside major labs
Reported after
In June 2026 DeepSeek took its first outside money, more than $7.4B at a $50B-plus valuation, with Tencent leading. Silicon Republic
What others say about DeepSeek
Moments where people outside the company talk about it.
David Sacks · All-In · Jan 31, 2025
“So this idea that you've got the scrappy company that did it for only 6 million, just not true.”
18:59 DeepSeek’s headline training cost leaves out its compute investment 7 min
Jeremie Harris · The Joe Rogan Experience · Apr 25, 2025
“access to compute, like, these export controls, man, do they ever work? That's a real problem for us.”
1:56:36 DeepSeek's compute complaints cut against Beijing's message 4 min
Dario Amodei · Big Technology Podcast · Jul 30, 2025
“Like, if we talk about DeepSeek, I don't think it mattered that DeepSeek is open source.”
36:35 Open weights do not make AI models work like open-source software 4 min
Eric Schmidt · All-In · Sep 24, 2025
“DeepSeek launched. And then we saw that actually they're ahead of us in open source.”
21:45 Today's AI still needs humans to define its goals 7 min
Yinon Costica · Sabrina Halper Show · Oct 7, 2026
34:41 AI models still inherit risks from their underlying infrastructure 4 min
Questions people ask
Is DeepSeek a public company? Can I buy DeepSeek stock?
No. DeepSeek is private and has no ticker, so its shares aren't sold on any exchange. Reports say it is preparing a Shanghai STAR Market IPO.
When will DeepSeek IPO?
Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported in July 2026 that it could list as soon as 2027. In September it was reported to have hired CITIC Securities for a STAR Market listing.
Who owns DeepSeek?
Mostly its founder Liang Wenfeng, who held 84% as of May 2024, Wikipedia says. Tencent, CATL and other investors joined in 2026.
Who is the CEO of DeepSeek?
Liang Wenfeng, who founded it and also founded the High-Flyer hedge fund.
Who founded DeepSeek?
Liang Wenfeng, on 17 July 2023, as a spin-off of High-Flyer's AGI lab.
How much is DeepSeek worth?
$74B before the new money, in a second round The Information reported closed in October 2026. Its June 2026 round valued it at more than $50B.
How much revenue does DeepSeek make?
A $1B yearly run rate in September 2026, The Information reported. A run rate is a month's revenue times twelve.
Is DeepSeek profitable?
No profit figure has been reported. 36Kr carried a report that its API business had an 82.9% gross margin in the first seven months of 2026. Gross margin isn't profit.
How does DeepSeek make money?
Mostly by charging businesses and developers for API access to its models, China Daily reports. Its chatbot is free.
Where is DeepSeek headquartered?
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Other companies in Frontier labs
OpenAI · Anthropic · Google DeepMind · Meta · SpaceXAI · Microsoft AI · Mistral AI · Safe Superintelligence · Thinking Machines Lab · Cohere · Moonshot AI · Reflection AI
How this page is sourced
Each figure links to the filing, company statement or news report it came from, with its date. Run rates are what reporters were told, not audited results; estimates and unconfirmed reports are marked. Quotes are what each person said on the record, with the minute they said it. Spotted something that's off? .
Last checked Nov 7, 2026