DeepSeek doesn't have a stock ticker. The Hangzhou AI lab founded by Liang Wenfeng is privately held, so no exchange lists its shares, and no listing document has been made public. DeepSeek hired CITIC Securities to prepare a possible listing on Shanghai's STAR Market and aims to start the process this year, Reuters reported on Sept. 9, 2026. The timing, size, and valuation of any offering haven't been decided.
DeepSeek is preparing for a possible Shanghai listing
DeepSeek plans to hire Yan Wentao, a partner at the venture firm GL Ventures, as its first chief financial officer, Reuters reported on Sept. 14. The company has never had a finance chief. DeepSeek didn't comment on either report, and nothing about a listing has been confirmed by the company.
A STAR Market listing needs regulatory clearance. After its current funding round closes, DeepSeek plans a restructuring and further IPO preparation with CITIC, The Standard reported on Oct. 13, citing mainland media.
DeepSeek's funding round could reach 100 billion yuan
DeepSeek raised outside money for the first time in June 2026: about $7.4 billion at a post-money valuation above $50 billion. Liang put in 20 billion yuan of his own, Tencent 10 billion yuan, and CATL 5 billion yuan, according to Reuters.
A second round began in July, aiming for a valuation of about 500 billion yuan, roughly $74.6 billion. DeepSeek was close to raising at least 80 billion yuan, about $11.9 billion, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 6. On Oct. 13, The Standard reported that the round had doubled to 100 billion yuan, with the pre-money valuation holding at about 500 billion yuan. New investors named in that report include Stony Creek, China Fortune-Tech, CPE, Legend Capital, and Geely, and CATL plans to add 10 billion yuan. DeepSeek hasn't confirmed the figures.
DeepSeek's annualized revenue run rate reached $1 billion, The Information reported in September, according to Reuters.
Tencent and CATL are DeepSeek's biggest outside investors
Liang's quantitative hedge fund, High-Flyer, financed DeepSeek from its founding in 2023 until 2026, when the lab began raising outside money. Tencent and CATL put the most outside money into the June round. Neither has disclosed what percentage of DeepSeek it owns.
Both trade publicly. Tencent is listed in Hong Kong under the code 0700 and trades over the counter in the US as TCEHY. CATL is listed in Shenzhen (300750) and Hong Kong (3750). Each is a far larger business than its DeepSeek stake, so their shares aren't a substitute for DeepSeek stock.
DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017 on Oct. 17
DeepSeek upgraded its V4.1 Flash model to DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on Oct. 17, 2026, according to its API change log, and moved its web and app versions to the new model. API pricing didn't change. DeepSeek said the update improves results across its benchmarks while cutting task runtime and output length. The same day, DeepSeek opened its in-house search engine to developers through a new Search and Fetch API.
V4.1-Flash, the smallest model in DeepSeek's new architecture family, launched on Sept. 10. DeepSeek has also been working with Huawei on programming tools for its Ascend AI chips.
China's Cyberspace Administration is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI over user data allegedly routed to Anthropic's Claude, The Information reported in September. No penalties had been decided, and neither company commented.
There is no DeepSeek stock or token to buy
Because DeepSeek has no listed shares, anything sold as "DeepSeek stock" or a DeepSeek coin isn't a stake in the company. More than 75 crypto tokens using the DeepSeek name appeared in January 2025, Decrypt reported.
What comes next
The next steps to watch are the close of DeepSeek's funding round and any filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The record below logs each step with its source, and the China AI stocks page tracks the Chinese labs and chipmakers already trading.
