DeepSeek, the developer of artificial intelligence systems, has decided to temporarily suspend the second round of capital raising, which was planned to receive at least $1.5 billion. According to relevant publications, the reason for this step was the reaction of the founder of the project, Liang Wenfeng, to the publication of internal discussions with potential investors. The company verbally notified some of the interested parties about the impossibility of signing agreements in the short term, although it does not exclude the resumption of the process in the future. The materials available to the media contained a detailed assessment of the current state of the industry, but there was no official confirmation of the authenticity of the document from the startup's management at the time of publication.

The published materials focused on the structural challenges faced by the artificial intelligence industry. The founder of the project emphasized that the main factor hindering development is not a shortage of qualified personnel, but limited access to advanced computing resources and graphics processors. According to internal estimates, DeepSeek's technological lag behind the world's leading developments ranges from 12 to 18 months, while comparable results are achieved using significantly less computing power. To reduce this gap and minimize dependence on the software ecosystem, the company actively cooperates with the chip manufacturer, optimizing its models for an alternative architecture using its own compiler.

The financial ambitions of the organization remain high: the value of DeepSeek was estimated at about 480 billion yuan, equivalent to 71 billion dollars, before the completion of the current transaction. The previous round of external financing, which ended at the end of May, raised over 50 billion yuan with the participation of major players such as Tencent, CATL, NetEase, JD com, IDG Capital and investment funds. At the same time, the company is preparing for an initial public offering of shares, which may take place as early as this year. At the same time, it was noted in the published discussions that the initial mission of the startup did not involve a focus on maximizing profits or going public, which indicates a certain transformation of corporate priorities as the business scales.