Monday, July 27, 2026
DeepSeek pauses second fundraising round after viral remarks
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek told prospective investors on July 25 that it would not sign investment agreements in the coming days, pausing a planned second fundraising round, Bloomberg reported. The freeze followed a leaked, widely circulated account of comments attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng at a roughly four-hour investor meeting, in which he reportedly argued the US-China AI gap comes down to computing power rather than talent and stressed continued reliance on Nvidia chips. DeepSeek closed about $7 billion in June and had begun early talks on a follow-on near a $71 billion pre-money valuation; the company said negotiations remain fluid and may resume later.