DeepSeek Seeks Up to $7.35B in First-Round Financing, Drawing Tencent, Alibaba, and State Fund Bidding War

DeepSeek seeks up to $7.35B in first-round financing with Tencent, Alibaba, and state funds in a bidding war, while founder Liang Wenfeng insists on keeping DeepSeek independent—a key test case for China's AI startup ecosystem.