Chinese AI Startups Race to Public Markets as DeepSeek Secures $12 Billion Funding

A wave of Chinese artificial intelligence companies is moving toward public listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai, buoyed by rapid advances in model performance and investor enthusiasm for homegrown AI champions. DeepSeek, the Beijing-based AI lab that released the cost-efficient V4 Flash model, is close to finalizing at least $12 billion in funding—potentially climbing to $15 billion—making it one of the most heavily capitalized AI firms ahead of an expected Shanghai IPO in early 2027. The round, led by Tencent Holdings and battery maker CATL, underscores confidence in DeepSeek's technology after V4 Flash demonstrated benchmark performance competitive with much more expensive models from Anthropic and OpenAI, while operating at a fraction of the inference cost.