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Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence increased its registered capital by 50%, reaching CNY15 million (approximately USD2.2 million), with the full amount funded by the company’s founder, according to the latest available data.
Following this capital boost, Liang Wenfeng’s registered capital grew to CNY5.1 million (around USD746,000) from CNY100,000 (about USD14,600), and his ownership stake surged from 1% to 34%, as reported by the corporate data platform.
Despite this, Liang’s effective ownership as the company’s main controller now stands at 84.3%. Meanwhile, the stake held by Ningbo Cheng’en Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership has been diluted from 99% to 66%.
The company is aiming to raise at least USD300 million in funding, with a valuation exceeding USD10 billion, according to reports from April 17.
Major tech firms such as Alibaba and Tencent are in negotiations to invest, with the funding round’s valuation reportedly increased from USD10 billion to over USD20 billion, and the total amount raised expected to rise correspondingly.
The company has not issued an official comment on these developments.
Founded by Liang, who also established the hedge fund High-Flyer Quant, the company based in Hangzhou has traditionally avoided external investments, funding itself primarily through profits generated by its parent organization.
However, rising costs of AI model training, increasing competition, and the departure of key researchers to competitors like ByteDance and Xiaomi suggest that Liang’s longstanding reluctance to seek outside funding may be beginning to shift.
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