DeepSeek's V4.1 Flash attributed to the benchmark gap narrowing; findings raise questions about U.S. export restriction effectiveness
Concluded·New·in the edition since 8 Oct 2026·2 sources·updated 8 Oct 2026
DeepSeek's fundraising for Huawei accelerators
The gist
DeepSeek Nears $12-15B Raise at $71B Valuation
The round size exceeds DeepSeek's own target and its valuation has risen substantially from the prior round. The hardware allocation points to DeepSeek's reliance on Huawei chips as a domestic alternative to Nvidia.
The full picture
DeepSeek is close to closing a funding round of at least $12 billion, above its own fundraising target, with signed term sheets potentially pushing the total to nearly $15 billion, at a possible valuation of $71 billion, according to Bloomberg. CNBC separately reported the round could reach $15 billion. The valuation is up from roughly $52 billion after DeepSeek's first outside round, and demand for the current round surged after the V4 Flash model launched. The capital will fund hardware purchases, including at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT accelerators for a data center in Inner Mongolia. In the first outside round, Tencent Holdings committed roughly $1.5 billion and CATL roughly $740 million; founder Liang Wenfeng put approximately $3 billion of his own money into that round.
How it developed
First in the edition · 8 October 2026
Bloomberg reported October 7 that DeepSeek is close to raising at least $12 billion, above its own target, at a possible $71 billion valuation, up from roughly $52 billion after its first outside round.
Signed term sheets could push the total to nearly $15 billion, CNBC also reported. The capital is earmarked for hardware including at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT accelerators for a data center in Inner Mongolia; demand for the round surged after DeepSeek launched its V4 Flash model.
Bloomberg Intelligence reported Chinese AI models trail U.S. counterparts by 3% on benchmarks, down from 15% earlier in 2026
DeepSeek open-sourced six Huawei Ascend projects, including TileLang and DeepGEMM-Ascend
Sources
Rohan Paul Twitter
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