DeepSeek

“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.”

“American labs have ceded ground to the Chinese ever since DeepSeek's breakout in 2025, with open models like Qwen and Kimi becoming the default foundation for startups around the world.”

“The company tells Axios it is exploring a fine-tuned version of DeepSeek V4, or another open-source model, as a lower-cost alternative to the Anthropic and OpenAI models now powering Copilot Cowork.”