Recently, foreign media outlet The Information, citing two insiders, unveiled a significant funding achievement: DeepSeek, a domestic enterprise specializing in general-purpose large models, has successfully concluded its first funding round, amassing over 50 billion yuan (approximately 7.4 billion US dollars). This milestone not only sets a new industry benchmark but also represents the largest single-round funding in the annals of China's AI sector. Insiders revealed that, following this funding injection, DeepSeek's post-investment valuation has soared beyond 50 billion US dollars, roughly equivalent to 338 billion yuan, propelling it into the upper echelons of domestic AI leaders with its exceptional valuation.

Remarkably, this funding round employed a unique transaction structure, wherein the majority of external investors were granted investment income rights without participating in the company's operational decision-making processes. This arrangement ensures the founder's unchallenged control over the company's long-term R&D strategy. The investor lineup was a blend of industrial capital, internet behemoths, and leading venture capital firms.

Founder Liang Wenfeng emerged as the largest contributor in this round, personally injecting 20 billion yuan, underscoring his unwavering commitment to propelling research and development in general artificial intelligence. Internet titan Tencent invested 10 billion yuan, becoming the largest external internet investor. Power battery leader CATL contributed 5 billion yuan, while JD.com, NetEase, and renowned venture capital firm IDG Capital each invested 3 billion yuan. The infusion of diverse capital has fostered an industrial synergy landscape that spans artificial intelligence, new energy, consumer internet, and professional venture capital.

Notably, CATL's 5 billion yuan cross-border investment has garnered significant industry attention. This move transcends mere financial investment, representing a pivotal strategic maneuver in the company's "new energy + AI" dual-mainline strategy, with a clear underlying rationale of industrial synergy.

On one front, AI large model training and inference computing clusters entail substantial and stable power consumption demands. CATL can capitalize on equity ties to secure orders for energy storage and supporting power supply solutions for DeepSeek's computing data centers. This will facilitate the promotion of dedicated energy storage batteries for data centers and integrated wind-solar-storage power supply solutions, paving the way for a new growth trajectory of "computing power demand—energy storage support," and completing its metamorphosis from a power battery manufacturer to an energy infrastructure service provider in the computing power era.

On the other hand, general-purpose large models will reciprocally enhance CATL's core lithium battery business. The two entities can harness DeepSeek's AI capabilities to expedite the simulation and screening of new battery materials, solid-state battery R&D, and construct industrial large models to optimize battery production line manufacturing, battery safety early warning, and intelligent energy storage scheduling. This will significantly truncate the R&D cycle for new materials and elevate the digital management level throughout the lifecycle of energy storage stations and power batteries.

Simultaneously, leveraging DeepSeek's global open-source ecosystem, CATL can expand its overseas computing power and energy storage markets, mitigate geopolitical pressures on power battery exports, and explore innovative scenarios such as in-vehicle large models and intelligent light-storage-charging platforms in collaboration with internet enterprises like Tencent and JD.com, thereby perfecting a cross-industry industrial alliance layout. In the long haul, this investment will also enable CATL to partake in the growth dividends of the domestic AI sector and cement its position as a cross-domain leader. Public information indicates that DeepSeek originated from the AI business segment of High-Flyer Quant (assuming this is the accurate translation for "Magic Square Quantification"; if not, please provide the correct English name), previously relying solely on its own funds for large model R&D and never opening up to large-scale external financing.

With the influx of this colossal 50 billion yuan funding, the company will embark on a comprehensive expansion of its computing power infrastructure, iterate multimodal general-purpose large models, attract top AI talent, and accelerate the application of AI technologies in sectors such as manufacturing, energy, and the internet. As of now, DeepSeek, Tencent, CATL, JD.com, NetEase, and IDG Capital have refrained from issuing official announcements regarding this funding news, with more transaction details pending subsequent disclosure by the companies. The market generally opines that the joint investment by internet, new energy, and venture capital giants in a leading general-purpose large model enterprise will foster the deep integration of domestic AI computing power and new energy storage industries.