Luggage maker’s filing pegs DeepSeek valuation at about $52B

A routine investment disclosure by a Chinese luggage maker has inadvertently offered one of the first concrete, public data points for the market valuation of DeepSeek, the artificial intelligence company that has become a focal point of U.S.-China tech competition.

Korrun's Filing Reveals the Math

Anhui Korrun, a Shenzhen-listed travel products company, disclosed on Wednesday evening that its wholly owned subsidiary, Ningbo Purun Investment Partnership, committed 40 million yuan to a fund called Tianjin Lishi Xingling Venture Investment Partnership. That fund, managed by Monolith Capital, has a total paid-in capital of 2.9 billion yuan and invested the entire sum indirectly in DeepSeek through an intermediary partnership, acquiring a 0.8265% stake in the AI company. Back-calculating from those figures yields an implied valuation for DeepSeek of roughly 350.9 billion yuan, or about $52 billion. Korrun's ultimate indirect holding comes to about 0.0114%, and the company described the investment as purely financial.x+1

Aligning With DeepSeek's First Funding Round

The implied price tag is broadly consistent with the terms of DeepSeek's first external financing round, which closed in early June. Multiple reports at the time put the total raise at more than 50 billion yuan — roughly $7.4 billion — at a post-money valuation exceeding $50 billion. Founder Liang Wenfeng contributed the largest single check of about 20 billion yuan, with Tencent investing around 10 billion yuan and CATL Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited about 5 billion yuan, according to The Information and Reuters. Outside investors received no voting rights and face a five-year lock-up; only China's state-backed National AI Industry Investment Fund secured direct equity and voting privileges.techxplore+5

Valuation Already Rising

DeepSeek's price has climbed rapidly since then. Bloomberg reported this week that the Hangzhou-based company has begun preparations for a mainland initial public offering and is in talks for a fresh private round at a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan, or about $71 billion. Reuters reported DeepSeek is targeting a listing on Shanghai's STAR Market, with a filing planned by year-end and a potential debut in 2027. The company aims to raise as much as 50 billion yuan in the new round. DeepSeek is working with accounting firms to complete financial statements by December, a prerequisite for any IPO filing.mercurynews+1