DeepSeek seeks $1.5B at $71B valuation with IPO plans, threatening to set the first public-market price for open-source AI ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic

Bloomberg reports DeepSeek is raising $1.5B at ~$71B valuation, up from $50B just one month ago (a 42% jump in 30 days), with a 2027 IPO that could come as early as late 2026. Founded in 2023, the Chinese AI lab accounted for 23% of all tokens processed by enterprise AI gateway Vercel in June (vs. Anthropic's 32%), runs on Huawei chips despite US export controls, and counts Tencent and Beijing's National AI Industry Investment Fund as backers.