Chinese AI firm DeepSeek made international headlines for serving to spark an enormous sell-off in U.S. tech shares on Monday, with Nvidia dropping virtually 20%.
In China, the hype round DeepSeek has despatched shares of some public corporations with supposed ties to it hovering. The downside: There’s no proof these corporations ever invested in or cooperated with DeepSeek to start with.
Rumored DeepSeek buyers Huajin Capital and Zhejiang Orient popped by 10% on Monday, whereas a analysis firm referred to as Sublime China Information jumped 20% for supposedly cooperating with DeepSeek on its AI fashions. (Those are the authorized most every day beneficial properties in Chinese exchanges.)
However, Sublime China Information denied cooperating with DeepSeek in a disclosure, and Huajin Capital denied to a Chinese enterprise information outlet that it ever disclosed a DeepSeek funding. Investment firm Zhejiang Orient hasn’t responded to a request for remark from TechCrunch, however there’s no public proof that they’re an investor in DeepSeek, both.
The rumors seem to have originated from unsubstantiated Chinese lists — which have gone viral — of varied publicly-traded corporations supposedly tied to DeepSeek.
DeepSeek, a personal firm, has by no means publicly introduced any VC investments, whereas Chinese company data make no point out of VC corporations on DeepSeek’s cap desk. Instead, its founder Liang Wenfeng is listed because the useful proprietor of all three entities that kind DeepSeek. DeepSeek is funded by the quant agency High-Flyer (which Wenfeng is CEO of) and has no plans to fundraise, Wenfeng instructed Chinese media outlet Waves final yr.
In a 2023 interview with the identical outlet, Wenfeng mentioned he had discussions with totally different funding sources, however VCs “appeared hesitant” about investing in a research-focused firm, prioritizing commercialization as an alternative.
DeepSeek didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s remark request.
