【West Street Observation】DeepSeekers, big companies can't fully understand or let go

Ask AI · How does the contest between big companies and small ones affect AI innovation?

DeepSeek’s funding news has once again surfaced with even more details.

Changes in the amount and changes in the backers are all part of it. Reports say that DeepSeek’s fundraising plan has surged to 50 billion yuan, a figure that will break the record for the highest amount of single-round funding in China’s AI company history.

The above information has not been confirmed. Meanwhile, a more telling detail has come to light: Alibaba, which had been competing loudly for it, fell into a deadlock during negotiations for this round of funding, and was quickly refuted by market insiders. At the same time, Tencent’s proposal to acquire shares of DeepSeek was also declined.

Although it’s hard to tell whether these rumors are true or false, they all point to one fact that doesn’t need to be doubted: DeepSeek’s appeal to capital proves that good AI companies have never lacked buyers. Big companies neither fully understand nor are able to let go.

In May, star unicorns from all directions kept releasing funding news, making China’s AI primary market unusually lively.

Following DeepSeek, reports said that the Moonshot Dark Matter is possibly nearing completion of about $2 billion in financing, with post-investment valuation exceeding $20 billion. Another well-known AI company, Stepwise Constellation, also reportedly has nearly $2.5 billion in financing lined up to land—and is preparing to list in Hong Kong.

For a time, star companies across China’s AI industry all rushed onto the fast track of fundraising. But this time, the investment-and-financing script in the AI space is different as well: the accompanying voice power and stakes have changed.

For big companies, AI development is full of uncertainty. Anyone could become great in an instant, and also lose their luck just as quickly. Therefore, the only certainty is not to put all your eggs in one basket.

At the current stage, the AI cloud market representing the B-end fundamentals and C-end traffic are still firmly controlled by big players such as ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and others. But at some point in the future, DeepSeek’s disruptive moves could also at any time put big companies into a passive position.

It is precisely based on this that big companies must cast a wide net and focus on nurturing in order to gain more paths to choice. Such choices will most likely arise from unrestrained original innovation—powered by the idealism and romanticism that small companies more often have.

For small companies, they can’t afford compute. They can’t hold on to talent. Therefore, they need money—that is the realism they must defend. Conversely, they don’t just need money; they also need to hold their own fate in their hands to ensure their idealism is not shattered.

DeepSeek’s current capital story is almost synchronized with the new generation model V4. In the new fundraising script, DeepSeek is a vivid illustration of the balancing and contesting between different parties.

Alibaba wants to use DeepSeek to build functional modules, Tencent wants to leverage DeepSeek to make up for the shortcomings of large models, and DeepSeek doesn’t want to become any one person’s part. It still wants, to the greatest extent possible, to be itself.

Take your own road, and let others talk. Where will the value realization of the large-model track ultimately come from? And how will each company achieve it? Whether it’s already listed companies like Zhipu, MiniMax, or DeepSeek and the Moonshot Dark Matter on the fast lane for fundraising—everyone is still searching for the answers.

In the process, the standard internet startup template—capital-backed, with rapid iteration, rapid fundraising, and rapid validation—still remains applicable. But versions that go beyond the business cycle, care only about their own technological pace, and neither chase trends nor get pressured into action by earnings reports, can also carve out a breakthrough.

Compared with traditional startup stories, there are many scripts that AI startups need to rewrite, and the relationship with capital is the first thing that comes under pressure.

It can be affirmed that regardless of where this deal goes, in the short term it will not change DeepSeek’s technological position in AI. However, it will definitely rewrite the pricing story of China’s AI unicorns.

Beijing Business Daily Commentator Tao Feng