DeepSeek Lands $7.4 Billion at $50 Billion Valuation With No-Poaching Demand
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Jun 18
DeepSeek Lands $7.4 Billion at $50 Billion Valuation With No-Poaching Demand
3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Jun 18
Summary
$7.4 billion in first external funding reportedly closed this week for DeepSeek, valuing the Hangzhou AI startup at more than $50 billion and making it China's most valuable AI-only startup.
A May investor call included an unusual condition from founder Liang Wenfeng: backers must not poach DeepSeek staff or encourage them to launch rival companies.
That demand reflects recent talent losses after DeepSeek long resisted outside capital; key V3 contributor Luo Fuli left last year to lead Xiaomi's MiMo team, whose models later beat DeepSeek on several benchmarks.
China's AI hiring fight has widened across major tech groups, with reports of Tencent taking developers from ByteDance, backing a lab founded by Alibaba's former Qwen lead, and earlier hiring an OpenAI-trained scientist.