Man, grab an energy drink and sit down, because I've got news that'll make you realize that at this rate, the Chinese are leaving us Romanians in the dust. You know DeepSeek, that AI startup everyone started talking about last year? Well, bro, now they're preparing their first funding round - and it's not just any round, it's a 7.4 BILLION DOLLAR deal! Holy smokes, just thinking about it makes my cigarette fall out of my mouth.
Listen up: according to sources cited by Reuters, DeepSeek wants to attract about 50 billion yuan, that's exactly 7.4 billion dollars, from heavy investors like Tencent Holdings and battery maker CATL. After they pocket this cash, their valuation will be between 350 and 400 billion yuan - that's between 52 and 59 billion dollars. I swear, with that money I'd buy half of Berceni and have Relu wash my BMW with salon shampoo!
Now, DeepSeek became known early last year when their V3 and R1 models got the Americans thinking. Until now, they've avoided external funding, living off the money from the High-Flyer fund, founded by their boss, Liang Wenfeng. But now they've changed strategy - maybe they realized that without fresh cash you can't keep up with OpenAI, which raised 122 billion dollars in March, or Anthropic, which took 65 billion. And just like that, the Chinese are starting to play at the big table too.
To be fair, it's not just about money. It's also about chips, bro. The Westerners have put an embargo on the hottest processors, so DeepSeek can't buy the best. Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a director at Ankura China Advisors, said it clearly: "Western export restrictions mean DeepSeek can't access cutting-edge components. Without hardware, they have no reason to spend tens of billions like the Americans." Man, I say that's a low blow, but the Chinese are slick: they do their own thing, with batteries and data centers.
And see how it all ties together: CATL, which is king of electric car batteries, is now getting into AI data centers. And Tencent, which has its own Hunyuan model but lags behind ByteDance and DeepSeek, wants to get in with them so they don't fall behind Alibaba, which relies on the Qwen model. It's like when Gică the Dinamo fan argues with me on Fane's terrace - everyone wants to be first, but in the end, the beer runs out!
Founder Liang Wenfeng is personally putting 20 billion yuan into this round. Tencent would give 10 billion, and CATL - 5 billion. Also on the list are the national Chinese AI fund, NetEase (game developer), and JD.com (e-commerce giant). In total, there will be fewer than ten investors. I haven't found out exactly what each says, because Tencent and CATL kept quiet, and DeepSeek offered no comment. But sources say the round closes in the next two weeks. Come on, I still have time to put in a good word with Relu to lend me a million too!
Unlike OpenAI and Anthropic, which are preparing for stock market listings, DeepSeek hasn't announced anything yet. Maybe they're waiting to see how things go. In the meantime, the Chinese are building an autonomous AI ecosystem, with their own money, batteries, and chips. Us Romanians, what are we doing? We're watching them and wondering why we don't have our own DeepSeek. But until then, I'm going to call Fane to see if his terrace is still open, because I can't touch 7.4 billion, but maybe a beer.
