DeepSeek raised more than 50 billion yuan in its first funding round, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing The Information.

The funding round required investors to pour capital into a limited partnership managed by CEO Liang Wenfeng ⁠rather than into DeepSeek itself, helping preserve founder control, the report said.

Investors would be subject to a five-year lock-up period and will not have voting rights, while China's National ​Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund will be the exception with voting rights and exemption from the lock-up, Reuters said.

Liang invested 20 billion yuan of his own money into the funding round, while Tencent (HKG:0700) was considering 10 billion yuan and CATL (SHE:300750, HKG:3750) was contemplating about 5 billion yuan, according to a previous Reuters report.

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