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Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Hits $1 Billion Revenue Run Rate
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In Short: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced on Thursday that its annualised revenue run rate has hit $1 billion, according to a report by The Information, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced on Thursday that its annualised revenue run rate has hit $1 billion, according to a report by The Information, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The revenue growth was partly attributed to raising model pricing by 2.3 to 4.5 times.
CEO Liang Wenfeng shared the latest revenue figure at a recent meeting with investors, as the company pushes ahead with a second funding round targeting 50 billion yuan ($7.45 billion) at a valuation of 500 billion yuan by the end of October.
DeepSeek is also preparing for a potential listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with CITIC Securities hired to prepare for a potential STAR Market IPO, though the timing, valuation, and fundraising size remain undecided.
The company continues to allocate more than 70% of its computing capacity to developing new models, with less than 30% reserved for running existing models. This underscores the rapid growth of the AI company that shook the tech industry last year after its models challenged US assumptions about China's AI capabilities.
Earlier this month, DeepSeek released its latest model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, designed for greater capability, faster inference, higher throughput, and scaling to larger models.
DeepSeek could not be immediately reached for comment.
What's still developing
- Run-rate revenue shows how much a company would make in a year if it continued performing at its current pace.