CATL is reportedly planning to invest in DeepSeek as the battery giant seeks to expand into AI infrastructure and energy supply systems for data centres.
According to a report by The Information, CATL intends to participate in DeepSeek’s ongoing initial funding round, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The report said the financing round is targeting approximately 50 billion yuan ($7.36 billion) and could close as early as June.
If completed, DeepSeek’s valuation could exceed 350 billion yuan, according to the report.
The potential investment comes as CATL expands beyond its core electric vehicle battery business into sectors tied to artificial intelligence computing infrastructure and energy systems.
The company is reportedly exploring opportunities to supply power equipment for AI data centres as demand for computing capacity and electricity consumption rises globally.
The Information reported that Chinese technology companies JD.com and NetEase are also in discussions to acquire stakes in DeepSeek, although negotiations and investment details remain subject to change.
DeepSeek gained significant attention after launching its open-source R1 large language model in January 2025, which the company said was trained at substantially lower cost than comparable US-developed AI models.
In its latest V4 model release, DeepSeek said the software had been optimized for use with Huawei Ascend 950PR AI chips, highlighting growing integration between Chinese AI software and domestic semiconductor hardware.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that a major Chinese state-backed semiconductor investment fund was in talks to lead DeepSeek’s funding round, valuing the company at around $45 billion.
The report also said investors including Tencent and Alibaba were discussing potential investments.
According to earlier reporting from The Information, DeepSeek founder and chief executive Liang Wenfeng plans to contribute the largest individual share of the financing round.
The company has also accelerated commercialization efforts and plans to increase the release frequency of its AI models, according to the report.
To support growing computing requirements, DeepSeek is reportedly developing a large-scale data centre in Ulanqab.
The region is considered attractive for data centre operations because of abundant electricity supplies and relatively low temperatures that can reduce cooling costs.
The expansion into physical infrastructure follows a system outage last month that reportedly disrupted DeepSeek services for nearly 12 hours, reinforcing the importance of dedicated computing facilities.
