“Deep Sec” raises huge funding that ignites the artificial intelligence race | economy

The Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSec is close to completing an unprecedented financing round worth 50 billion yuan (about 7.4 billion dollars), in a move that may redraw the map of global competition in the artificial intelligence sector, and give China a strong boost in the face of major American companies that are in turn racing to secure huge sources of funding to support the expansion of infrastructure and advanced models of artificial intelligence.

According to informed sources, the list of investors in the new round of Deep Sec includes the Chinese technology giant Tencent, the Chinese company Contemporary Ambrix Technology, which specializes in the battery industry, in addition to the Chinese National Fund for Investment in the Artificial Intelligence Industry, which is supported by Beijing.

The sources said that external investors will contribute about 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion), while the company’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, pumped about 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) of his own money, bringing the total value of the company to about 350 billion yuan (about 49 billion dollars).

The new financing round reflects an advanced level of ambition of Chinese artificial intelligence companies that seek to reduce the gap with American competitors, after Deep Sec succeeded in attracting global attention by developing advanced artificial intelligence models capable of competing with Silicon Valley products at a lower cost.

According to the sources, “Tencent” obtained the largest single investment share, worth 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), in a deal that would enhance the company’s plans to integrate artificial intelligence technologies into its digital system, while the “Alibaba” group participated in preliminary discussions before withdrawing from the investment.

A global race for finance

The huge financing comes at a time when competition is increasing between global artificial intelligence companies to obtain new capital, after the cost of developing advanced models, data centers and electronic chips has become one of the biggest challenges facing the sector.

DeepSec’s management told potential investors that it will continue to prioritize research and development over short-term commercial returns, sticking to an open source model approach, and pursuing the long-term goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).

According to sources quoted by Bloomberg, the company’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, confirmed during meetings with investors that the primary goal is to push the boundaries of technology forward more than focusing on quick profits.

This trend represents a challenge to the prevailing model in the industry, as companies face increasing pressure from investors to prove their ability to achieve sustainable revenues after pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into computing infrastructure and chips.

In the United States, major companies are looking for different financing paths to support their expansion plans.

OpenAI has succeeded in raising tens of billions of dollars through successive financing rounds and strategic partnerships, while Anthropic, the developer of the Cloud model, continues to attract huge investments from international technology companies to support the development of its advanced models.

Analysts expect that the coming years will witness a new wave of initial public offerings or alternative financing tools for major artificial intelligence companies, with the sector’s increasing needs for liquidity and financing of giant data centers and computing infrastructure.

Chinese government support

The involvement of the Chinese National Fund for Artificial Intelligence in the new round highlights the strategic importance that Beijing attaches to Deep Seek, which in a short period has become one of the most prominent symbols of Chinese progress in this field.

The company was founded in 2023 and is affiliated with the “High Flyer” hedge fund owned by Yang Wenfeng, and is currently working to expand its activity in the field of “artificial intelligence agents”, which is intelligence capable of carrying out tasks independently, taking advantage of the growing momentum for this type of software.