April 17 (Reuters) – Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is in talks with investors to raise at least $300 million at a valuation of $10 billion, The Information reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The company, whose low-cost models took the AI industry by storm and rattled stock markets last year, has previously turned down multiple funding offers from China’s top venture capital firms and tech giants, the report said.
The potential fundraise underscores the intense capital requirements for developing and running top-of-the line AI models amid the rise of advanced reasoning and agentic bots.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
As a Chinese startup, some U.S. venture capitalists might hesitate about investing in DeepSeek, the report said.
Reuters reported earlier this year that the company did not show U.S. chipmakers its flagship model for performance optimization, and had trained one of its newest models on Nvidia’s most advanced chip despite it being banned.
China, meanwhile, has been working to ensure that local firms use domestic processors and reduce reliance on foreign technology.
(Reporting by Abu Sultan and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Devika Syamnath)
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