Bloomberg: DeepSeek is close to raising at least $12B, well above its own fundraising target at a posssible $71B valuation.

Demand surged after its V4 Flash model launched, and signed term sheets could lift the final total to nearly $15B

And the lab needs the money for hardware, including at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT accelerators planned for a data center in Inner Mongolia.

Tencent Holdings and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. are again among the biggest backers.

Tencent Holdings and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. are again among the biggest backers.

They committed roughly $1.5B and $740M in DeepSeek's first outside round, which valued the lab at about $52B after the money came in.

Founder Liang Wenfeng put about $3B of his own money into that round.