DeepSeek plans to hire CITIC Securities to prepare for the Sci-Tech Innovation Board IPO

According to Reuters, citing two informed sources, Hangzhou artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has hired CITIC Securities to prepare for an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Sci-Tech Innovation Board and plans to initiate the IPO process this year. The potential timing of the issuance, fundraising scale, and target valuation have yet to be determined. DeepSeek and CITIC Securities have not yet responded to requests for comment.

DeepSeek is currently undergoing a round of financing, with a valuation reaching 500 billion yuan (approximately 75 billion USD). The company raised about 7.4 billion USD in June this year, with a post-investment valuation exceeding 50 billion USD. In this round of financing, founder Liang Wenfeng personally committed to invest 20 billion yuan, Tencent Holdings invested 10 billion yuan, and CATL invested 5 billion yuan.

Domestic large model developers Z.AI and MiniMax went public in Hong Kong earlier this year, and Beijing startup Moonshot has secretly submitted an IPO application in Hong Kong. Liang Wenfeng hopes that the funds raised from the IPO will help provide stronger incentives to retain key employees and researchers. The company has recently experienced talent loss to competitors such as ByteDance and Xiaomi.