DeepSeek pauses its second fundraising round after private investor comments linked to Liang Wenfeng spread online
DeepSeek has frozen its second fundraising round after telling some investors that the signing process will not happen for now. The company had been preparing to collect fresh capital weeks after closing its first deal.
The freeze followed private remarks made by Liang Wenfeng, founder of the lab, which had gone viral on social media. It is said that Liang was displeased with the leakage of information from an investment meeting conducted some time ago, according to Bloomberg.
The initial round of financing closed in June, with $7 billion being infused into the lab. Social media was flooded with posts purportedly containing the transcript of a meeting that Liang had organized with certain unnamed participants, but Bloomberg could not verify its authenticity.
Chinese outlet Yicai reported that Liang spoke about Chinaโs need for Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) hardware and the countryโs lower level of AI development compared with the United States. DeepSeek may reopen the fundraising later, and the talks remain alive.
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