CATL

“DeepSeek, the Chinese open-sourced foundational model company, raised $7.5b at a valuation north of $50b. Founder Liang Wenfeng invested $3b, joined by Tencent and CATL.”

“DeepSeek's $7.4B fundraise at a $52B valuation — backed by Tencent, CATL, and a state fund — signals that Chinese AI is graduating from scrappy challenger to institutionally-backed competitor.”

“New entrants are not competing against where CATL is today. They are competing against where it will be by the time they catch up.”