DeepSeek’s funding pace—one round every month, with a valuation jumping by 37% directly. The AI arms race is really a money-burning affair.

DeepSeek plans to raise funds again about one month after completing its first round of financing to accelerate the expansion of its infrastructure. The first round raised about $7 billion, and the post-money valuation was about $52 billion. The company is currently in talks with new investors and plans to launch a new round with a pre-transaction valuation of about $71 billion, up roughly 37% from the prior round. The reason for accelerating fundraising is that the market expects its capital expenditures to rise significantly, including building its own data centers and purchasing more AI chips. At the same time, the company is actively rolling out AI agents that can autonomously execute tasks, driving a substantial increase in demand for compute capacity.