DeepSeek pauses second fundraising round after viral remarks

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek told prospective investors on July 25 that it would not sign investment agreements in the coming days, pausing a planned second fundraising round, Bloomberg reported. The freeze followed a leaked, widely circulated account of comments attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng at a roughly four-hour investor meeting, in which he reportedly argued the US-China AI gap comes down to computing power rather than talent and stressed continued reliance on Nvidia chips. DeepSeek closed about $7 billion in June and had begun early talks on a follow-on near a $71 billion pre-money valuation; the company said negotiations remain fluid and may resume later.