DeepSeek secures $7.5 billion in second round, annual revenue surpasses $1 billion

DeepSeek has confirmed a $7.5 billion second-round funding round, with annualized revenue surpassing $1 billion. The company’s revenue growth is attributed to recent API price hikes and strong market demand for its large models. According to insiders, DeepSeek plans to complete the fundraising by October’s end, targeting $50 billion in Chinese yuan, with a valuation goal of $50 billion. Li Wenfeng, the company’s leader, emphasized that most resources are allocated to new model development, with over 70% of computing power dedicated to training and less than 30% for inference. Li also noted that the price increase did not lead to customer loss, as demand remains robust. Internal tests show that the company’s lightweight models can run stably on gaming GPUs, handling most user tasks efficiently. The firm is also preparing for an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with its strong financial performance expected to boost investor confidence. Li Wenfeng highlighted the potential of the lightweight models, which are designed to meet the needs of a broad range of users without compromising performance.