China artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek has begun preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) with a goal of listing on mainland China's stock market in 2027.
Bloomberg News reported on the 14th (local time), citing sources, that DeepSeek is drawing up plans to list on the mainland China stock market and is expected to file its IPO application late this year or early next year.
DeepSeek is working with accounting firms to complete financial statements, an essential step for an IPO filing, by the end of December, and it is said to plan to submit its application late this year or early next year depending on when the financial materials are ready.
According to the Financial Times (FT), DeepSeek entered preliminary talks this week on opening an additional funding round with new investors. It comes barely a month after it completed its first external fundraising in the previous month.
At the time, DeepSeek raised more than 50 billion yuan (about 11 trillion won), receiving a corporations value of $52 billion (about 77 trillion won). In this round, it is targeting at least a $71 billion (about 105 trillion won) pre-money valuation. That is about 37% higher than the previous assessment.
DeepSeek is moving to raise funds in succession because capital expenditure needed for building its own data centers and additional purchases of AI chips is expected to increase significantly.
Alongside infrastructure investment, DeepSeek is accelerating talent acquisition. It is hiring to double the current size of the organization and plans to assign new hires to core tasks immediately after they join.
Meanwhile, DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.