DeepSeek could hit $45B valuation from its first investment round
TechCrunch / 5/7/2026
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Key Points
- DeepSeek gained early 2025 attention for launching a large language model trained with significantly less compute and at far lower cost than major U.S. rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
- The company is now reported to be on track to reach a $45B valuation stemming from its first investment round.
- The funding and valuation signal growing investor confidence in efficient, cost-effective AI model development from China.
- By competing on cost and compute efficiency, DeepSeek’s approach could intensify price and performance pressure across the global LLM market.
The Chinese AI lab came to prominence in early 2025 after launching a large language model that trained on a fraction of the compute power and at a fraction of the cost of the big U.S. models like those from OpenAI and Anthropic.
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