DeepSeek is set to close a funding round above 80 billion yuan ($11.9 billion) this month, according to Reuters, while rival Moonshot AI has filed confidentially for a Hong Kong IPO after a private round valued it at $50 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Each lab reports roughly $1 billion in annualized revenue. Investors are paying 50 to 74 times that figure, a steeper multiple than OpenAI or Anthropic command at near-trillion-dollar valuations.
DeepSeek’s Round Grew 60% Past Its Own Target
DeepSeek opened the round in July at a 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) valuation, Reuters reported. It had closed its first external raise, about $7.4 billion, only a month earlier.
The original goal was 50 billion yuan. Demand pushed commitments past 80 billion, and Bloomberg reported the final tally could hit 100 billion.
Three details matter for what comes next.
- Who is writing the checks. Tencent and battery maker CATL made some of the largest commitments, per Bloomberg.
- Where it lists. DeepSeek has hired CITIC Securities for a possible Shanghai STAR Market IPO. No date or size is set.
- What drove demand. September brought the V4.1-Flash model, which narrowed the benchmark gap with US labs, and a Huawei partnership on tools for Ascend chips.
Moonshot Wants $5 Billion From Hong Kong by March
Moonshot, maker of the Kimi models, closed its final private round at $50 billion, up from $31.5 billion over the summer, Bloomberg reported. It is targeting a first-quarter 2027 listing and a raise of up to $5 billion.
Bank of America is coordinating, with CICC, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs as sponsors. Investor sentiment meetings begin this month.
Those meetings start while Moonshot is under investigation. Chinese regulators have opened a data-security probe into both DeepSeek and Moonshot, capping an eventful stretch for Kimi since the K3 launch in July.
Is $50 Billion Cheap? Depends Which Side of the Pacific You Compare
Put the four labs side by side and the answer flips depending on the peer group.
On last closed rounds, the two Chinese labs cost three to five times more per revenue dollar than the two US leaders. On the latest marks, the gap narrows to about two to four times.
Against each other, Moonshot is the cheaper of the pair by a third.
Two things soften the gap.
Growth. Moonshot targets $2 billion in annualized revenue by December. Hit that, and its multiple halves to 25 times, though that is still well above Anthropic’s 15 times. DeepSeek’s run rate roughly doubled from its August pace in a few months. OpenAI’s own run rate rose more than 70% since July, which is how its multiple compressed.
Margins. DeepSeek’s API business earns an 82.9% gross margin, per The Information. Zhipu, the nearest listed comparison, runs a 26% gross margin and has shed roughly HK$1 trillion in market value since June, 36kr reported. Moonshot has not disclosed its margins.
The Number That Decides the Roadshow
Moonshot’s December revenue figure will anchor its prospectus. DeepSeek’s October close will fix the mark its own listing is judged against.
Both land as Anthropic prepares what could be the largest IPO ever, handing public investors a US benchmark at a fraction of the Chinese multiple.
Hong Kong paid a scarcity premium for Zhipu when it was one of two listed labs. With Moonshot, DeepSeek, and Anthropic all heading for exchanges within a year, that scarcity is ending just as the valuations assume it will last.
Source: BeInCrypto
