DeepSeek's Valuation Surges Past $20 Billion as Tencent and Alibaba Weigh Investments

Gate News message, April 22 — DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup owned by hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management, is now seeking a valuation above $20 billion as Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group discuss potential investments. The Information reported Wednesday that the asking price has climbed rapidly from at least $10 billion just days earlier (Friday, April 18). The startup is still in talks with investors, and both the valuation and fundraising amount could change.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday on the Dwarkesh Podcast that it would be “a horrible outcome” for the United States if DeepSeek optimizes its AI models to run on Huawei chips instead of American hardware. Currently, U.S. chips are about five times more powerful than Chinese rivals, with the gap expected to widen to 17 times by 2027. Huawei’s Ascend 910C delivers approximately 60% of the inference performance of Nvidia’s H100, which is already two generations behind Nvidia’s current flagship. Huang noted that China possesses “abundant energy” and a “large pool of AI researchers,” presenting a potential catch-up path in AI development.

Meanwhile, AI funding continues to surge globally. Vast Data announced a $1 billion funding round at a $30 billion valuation on Wednesday, with Nvidia among the backers. The financing, led by Drive Capital and Access Industries, more than tripled Vast’s $9.1 billion valuation from 2023. According to Dealroom, AI companies worldwide have already raised $280.5 billion this year, with over $170 billion directed to OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.