Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has notified prospective investors that it is putting its second fundraising round on hold, Bloomberg News reported Saturday, citing individuals with knowledge of the situation.
According to the report, DeepSeek verbally communicated to some potential backers that investment agreements would not be finalized in the coming days. Bloomberg News noted that the company could potentially restart the fundraising process at a later time.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report, and DeepSeek could not be reached for comment outside of normal business hours.
The Hangzhou-based company had been planning to raise fresh capital at a valuation of approximately 500 billion yuan, which equals roughly $74 billion. That would have followed a successful first fundraising round that brought in about $7.4 billion.
The decision to pause was reportedly driven in part by frustration from DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng over news coverage of remarks he made to investors during the company’s initial fundraising round.
Reuters also reported last week that DeepSeek had begun preliminary discussions about a possible initial public offering on Shanghai’s STAR Market, which operates similarly to the Nasdaq.
