TMTPOST — DeepSeek plans to raise approximately $7 billion in its first formal funding round, a transaction that would value the artificial intelligence startup at $59 billion, according to industry reports on Tuesday. Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) are positioned to become the primary external investors in the financing round. NetEase and JD.com are also scheduled to participate in the capitalization effort, the sources noted. The targeted capital injection would represent one of the largest single private financing rounds within the global artificial intelligence sector to date. The substantial valuation reflects intensifying competition among institutional investors to back foundational model developers within the Chinese technology ecosystem. If finalized, the capital will allow the machine learning firm to expand its computation infrastructure and advance its open-source model architectures.