New Stock News | It is rumored that DeepSeek has hired CITIC SEC to prepare for its IPO on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, with plans to initiate the IPO process this year.

On September 9, the WeChat account "Unicorn News" reported that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has engaged CITIC SEC to prepare for its initial public offering (IPO) on the STAR Market. According to insiders, the AI company headquartered in Hangzhou plans to officially launch the IPO process in 2026. As of now, the specific issuance timeline, fundraising scale, and target valuation have yet to be determined. Over the past four months, DeepSeek's capitalization process has been rapidly advancing. The first round of external financing began in April this year and completed in June, raising 50 billion yuan, with a post-money valuation exceeding 350 billion yuan. The founder, Liang Wenfeng, personally contributed 20 billion yuan, with participation from Tencent (00700), Contemporary Amperex Technology (03750), NTES (09999), JD (09618), IDG Capital, and others. The second round of financing is also nearing completion, with a pre-money valuation rising to 500 billion yuan and a financing scale of 50 billion yuan, bringing the total fundraising from the two rounds to over 100 billion yuan. New investors include SMIC Juyuan, Boyu Capital, CPE Yuanfeng, and Hefei State-owned Assets, while existing shareholders such as Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology continue to invest. DeepSeek seeks new capital in this round primarily for infrastructure development, model creation, and talent retention. The company has recently experienced a loss of key personnel, with some researchers being poached by competitors such as ByteDance and Xiaomi (01810). On September 7, the company announced plans to expand its workforce by 150, bringing the total number of employees to approximately 300. In terms of industrial layout, DeepSeek has participated in the IPO allocations of CXMT Corporation and Yushutek through its funds, investing about 175 million yuan and 141 million yuan, respectively.