DeepSeek’s senior management, including founder Liang Wenfeng, tells prospective investors that the company’s new external funding round is focused on long-term artificial intelligence research rather than near-term revenue, according to people familiar with the discussions. The startup is said to be raising about 70 billion yuan (roughly $10 billion), and this appears to be its first outside funding round. Investors are told that DeepSeek will prioritize “frontier” research work from its Hangzhou laboratory as a primary direction. In these discussions, Liang Wenfeng frames artificial general intelligence (AGI) as the company’s main goal. Multiple accounts also describe an emphasis on continued open-source model releases, suggesting that the approach will remain oriented toward making its models publicly available rather than moving immediately toward product commercialization. The reports do not provide confirmation of deal size details beyond the reported round size, nor do they specify the timeline or valuation terms. The communications focus on strategic priorities—AGI research and open releases—while the funding process advances.