DeepSeek is in early talks with investors for a new funding round at a pre-money valuation of about $71 billion, weeks after closing its first $7 billion round at $52 billion. The capital would fund data centers, AI chips, and an in-house inference chip to reduce reliance on Nvidia and Huawei. Founder Liang Wenfeng remains the largest backer. DeepSeek faces mounting domestic competition from Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and Moonshot AI.
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