DeepSeek is closing in on a funding round of at least $12 billion, backed by Tencent and battery maker CATL, with an IPO planned for early 2027. That's per a Bloomberg report picked up by CoinDesk, which adds that demand could push the round to around $15 billion, past its initial target.
The raise follows DeepSeek's V4 Flash model, which reportedly closed ground on OpenAI and Anthropic on cost and performance. I keep coming back to that framing. A lab whose whole selling point is being cheaper is now raising $12 billion with a battery giant on the cap table. Whatever the efficient-underdog story was, this isn't it.
Moonshot's Hong Kong plan
Moonshot AI, the company behind the Kimi chatbot, has closed what CoinDesk describes as its final private round at a $50 billion valuation. It's targeting a Hong Kong IPO in the first quarter of 2027 that could raise up to $5 billion. Annual recurring revenue is expected to reach $2 billion by December, double the current level, which implies roughly $1 billion today.
Worth pausing on that math. A $50 billion price on $1 billion of recurring revenue is about 50 times current ARR. Even against the $2 billion target, it's 25 times forward revenue, for a chatbot most Western readers couldn't name. Public market investors have paid stranger multiples for AI lately. Still, it's an ask.
The American side
OpenAI is seeking at least $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation, per reporting last week, after delaying its own IPO. Bloomberg now names BlackRock and UAE funds as potential investors who could collectively put in up to $10 billion.
Anthropic, meanwhile, is reportedly eyeing a November listing, right after the U.S. midterm elections, at a valuation around $2 trillion. That is a staggering number to bring to public markets in any year, let alone weeks after a midterm vote. Bold.
What I actually think
The honest read is that everyone is moving at once. DeepSeek, Moonshot, OpenAI, Anthropic: four companies, three IPOs planned or floated for within about a year, and private rounds sized like public ones. When every major lab wants to convert private paper into public money in the same window, that tells you something about where insiders think we are in the cycle. Maybe they're confident. Maybe they want out while the getting is good.
The counter-argument is real demand. DeepSeek's round is oversubscribed. Moonshot's revenue is doubling. OpenAI's investor list spans BlackRock and Gulf state money. This could be the early stage of a genuine platform shift, and today's prices could look cheap in five years.
I don't know which read is right. Neither does anyone else. What I do know is that 2027 is shaping up to be the year public markets finally get to vote on AI valuations that private investors have only ever negotiated among themselves. That vote tends to be less polite.