Article: DeepSeek Completes Over $7 Billion in Financing with Unconventional Trading Structure

DeepSeek raised over 50 billion RMB in its first round of financing, with a valuation exceeding 50 billion USD, and adopted a transaction structure aimed at maintaining founder control. Reports suggest that this financing required investors to inject funds into a limited partnership managed by DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, rather than directly investing in DeepSeek itself. DeepSeek has not yet commented on the matter. Investors are said to be subject to a five-year lock-up period and do not have voting rights. Earlier reports indicated that founder Liang Wenfeng personally invested 20 billion RMB in this round of financing, and Tencent is considering investing another 10 billion RMB, while CATL plans to invest 5 billion RMB, making them the largest external investors in this round of financing.