Today, Reuters released a piece of news: DeepSeek has engaged CITIC Securities as a counseling agency, preparing for an IPO on the STAR Market, with plans to officially start the listing process within the year.

Neither DeepSeek nor CITIC Securities has responded. However, the credibility of this news is quite high—CITIC Securities is the top broker, and the listing counseling is a standard procedure in the A-share market. Once someone is engaged, it basically means the process is well underway.

Interestingly, this company used to be the most "laid-back" in the entire industry.

Two Years Ago: No Financing, No Listing

At the end of 2024, when DeepSeek was just gaining popularity, Liang Wenfeng's approach was as follows: no interviews, no press conferences, no financing. The company relied on its own funds from Magic Square Quant to sustain itself, focusing silently on building models. At that time, outsiders wanted to invest money, but they couldn't even get a foot in the door.

The situation drastically changed this year.

In April, the first round of external financing was launched, and in June, it was completed, amounting to 51 billion yuan, with a post-investment valuation of 350 billion yuan—Liang Wenfeng himself contributed 20 billion, Tencent 10 billion, CATL 5 billion, and NetEase, JD.com, and IDG each 3 billion. Within less than two months, a second round was arranged, with a pre-investment valuation reaching 500 billion, again raising 50 billion. Together, the two rounds raised over 100 billion.

Financing has not yet been fully secured, and the IPO counseling has already begun.

From "no financing, no listing" to "raising two rounds of financing in two months, rushing for an IPO within the year," DeepSeek took less than six months.

Where is the Money Being Spent? Burning Faster than Earnings

First, let’s look at the accounts. According to data obtained by The Information, DeepSeek generated revenue of 475 million yuan in the first seven months of this year—this sounds good, ten times that of last year's total. However, during the same period, the net loss was 715 million. And how much was spent on AI infrastructure? 11 billion.

With revenue of less than 500 million and infrastructure investment of 11 billion, this gap cannot be filled by selling APIs.

Coincidentally, today DeepSeek also officially announced another matter: starting tomorrow, the flash series will implement peak and off-peak pricing, with prices doubling during peak hours and decreasing during idle periods. On one hand, they are using price leverage to guide developers to stagger usage and reduce computing costs, while on the other, they are rapidly preparing for the IPO to boost funds—two activities scheduled for the same day, think about it.

There’s an Even More Realistic Pressure: People Have Been Poached

Reuters made it very clear in the report: ByteDance and Xiaomi have recently been offering high salaries to poach people from DeepSeek, and a core group of researchers has already left. There are reports on Weibo stating that at least five key employees have departed, covering major areas like large models, inference, and multi-modality.

DeepSeek has around 300 people in total. Just a couple of days ago, they released 150 job openings, equivalent to hiring "half of DeepSeek."

Simply relying on ideals and feelings will no longer retain people. Stocks and options of a listed company are the language that workers understand. Liang Wenfeng wants to use the money raised from the IPO for equity incentives; this is a calculated move.

Why the STAR Market and Not the Hong Kong Stock Market?

In this wave of AI IPOs, competitors have mostly gone to Hong Kong: Zhizhu and MiniMax have listed this year, and The Dark Side of the Moon has also secretly submitted its application.

DeepSeek insists on going for the STAR Market.

Here’s the background: the Shanghai Stock Exchange has opened a green light specifically for large model companies—the fifth set of listing standards, allowing high-quality AI companies without a revenue scale to go public. This standard was originally intended for innovative drug companies and has now been applied to large models. The STAR Market desires such hard tech benchmarks, and DeepSeek also needs a platform that provides ample policy dividends.

Moreover, think about its well-known financing structure: the money from external investors goes into a limited partnership managed by Liang Wenfeng, with a five-year lock-up period, and only the national AI industry investment fund can hold shares directly. The control is firmly in hand. This style is naturally aligned with the policy direction of the STAR Market. Going to the Hong Kong Stock Market to bargain about valuations with hedge funds? There’s no need.

In Simple Terms, This Is No Longer a "Lab"

The DeepSeek of 2025 resembles a martial arts master hiding in Hangzhou, shaking the world with a set of open-source models. The DeepSeek of 2026 will be a heavy-duty company that has raised over 100 billion in two rounds, aims to increase its staff to 450, buys chips to build data centers, and competes for talent.

The ticket price for the AGI table has already risen to the level of hundreds of billions of dollars. OpenAI and Anthropic are queuing at the door of the U.S. stock market, with valuations of 1 trillion and 2 trillion dollars, respectively. This level of arms race cannot solely rely on self-funds and private equity financing; it will eventually not be enough.

The IPO is not a retreat of idealism; it is an inevitability as this battle reaches a new stage.

For ordinary people, this is also an opportunity: Zhizhu and MiniMax are in the Hong Kong Stock Market, which is difficult for most people to invest in; when DeepSeek truly rings the bell on the STAR Market, one A-share account can place a bet on domestic large models.

Of course, the counseling filing is still a lengthy process before the formal listing, and the fundraising scale, timeline, and valuation have not been finalized. Reuters also mentioned that this year is just the "start of the process," with the actual listing in the market expected to be around 2027.

But the direction has been set. The DeepSeek that claimed "there's no shortage of money" is finally stepping into the noise of the stock market.

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