DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab whose models have repeatedly rattled global markets, has taken a concrete step toward going public. According to a Reuters exclusive published Wednesday, the startup has hired CITIC Securities, one of China's largest brokerages, to prepare an initial public offering on Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market.

The report, attributed to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, is the strongest indication yet that DeepSeek's listing plans — first reported in July — are actively progressing. DeepSeek has not publicly confirmed the plan. For more context on this story, see our ongoing more AI stories.

Why the CITIC Appointment Matters

In China's listing process, appointing a sponsor bank is one of the first formal steps a company takes toward an IPO on a mainland exchange, so the choice of CITIC signals DeepSeek is moving from general preparation to an actual filing track. Reuters noted that the engagement had not previously been reported, and that companies seeking a mainland China listing typically appoint their sponsor early in the process.

The STAR Market, formally the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, is China's venue for exactly this kind of company: hard-tech firms with heavy research spending, often unprofitable, that would struggle to list on conventional boards. It has become the preferred landing spot for China's AI and robotics champions.

From Open-Weights Phenomenon to Capital Markets

DeepSeek's path to an IPO has been swift. In July, Bloomberg reported that the lab had begun preparing for a listing and could file as soon as this year, weeks after closing a funding round of more than $7 billion that reportedly valued the company at around $71 billion pre-money. A mainland debut was reported to be possible as early as 2027.

The company's stated rationale tracks with its costs. According to a summary of the Reuters reporting, DeepSeek aims to use IPO proceeds to fund computing infrastructure and talent — the two line items that dominate any frontier lab's budget, and the two where Chinese labs face the most acute pressure given export controls on advanced chips.

For a lab that built its reputation on doing more with less — training frontier-class models at a fraction of US rivals' reported costs — an IPO would mark a philosophical shift: from scrappy research outfit to capitalized infrastructure builder.

The Compute Bottleneck Behind the Raise

The choice of what to fund says as much as the listing itself. US export controls continue to restrict Chinese labs' access to the most advanced AI chips, making compute the binding constraint on how fast any Chinese frontier lab can train and serve models. DeepSeek's plan to direct proceeds toward computing infrastructure is, in effect, a hedge against that constraint — buying capacity while it can still be bought.

It also aligns with how Chinese analysts frame the sector. When DeepSeek launched its V4 model in May, analysts quoted in market commentary said the release could trigger a broad reassessment of stocks across the AI industry chain, from domestic chipmakers to large language model developers. A public DeepSeek would give those investors direct exposure to that chain rather than proxy plays.

There is a talent dimension, too. Chinese provincial governments have been courting AI researchers affiliated with DeepSeek and its rivals as part of a broader push to anchor frontier talent at home, and equity — including listed stock — is the standard currency for that competition.

STAR Market Investors Have Shown a Huge Appetite

DeepSeek would not be testing investor appetite blindly. In August, robot maker Unitree Robotics priced its own STAR Market IPO at 150.80 yuan per share, seeking to raise about 6.1 billion yuan — and the offering drew a record-shattering 8,288 times oversubscription, the largest in the board's history, according to Global Times reporting on the pricing.

Notably, DeepSeek itself participated in the Unitree IPO as a strategic placement investor, per the same reporting — an unusual case of one star AI company taking a stake in another's listing. That record oversubscription suggests a domestic investor base eager for AI exposure at almost any price, something any DeepSeek underwriter will have noticed.

What to Watch as the Filing Approaches

Several questions will shape the IPO narrative in the coming months:

Timing. A filing as soon as this year remains possible on the July timeline, though mainland listings involve lengthy regulatory review, and Chinese authorities have at times slowed tech listings to manage market conditions. Valuation. The reported $71 billion pre-money figure from July already made DeepSeek one of the most valuable Chinese AI startups. A public market will put that number to a live test — against a company whose models are open-weights, meaning the core technology is freely downloadable. Disclosure. Public listing will force a level of financial transparency DeepSeek has never offered, from training compute spending to revenue from its API and app businesses. For analysts who have long had to estimate DeepSeek's economics from secondhand reports, the prospectus will be the first hard data. Geopolitics. A listed DeepSeek will sit at the intersection of Beijing's push for homegrown AI and Washington's chip export controls. Its disclosure documents — not its benchmark scores — may become the most closely read text in the US-China AI race.

Neither DeepSeek nor CITIC has commented publicly on the report. If the STAR Market filing materializes, it would be the largest Chinese AI IPO since the country's listing pipeline reopened for hard-tech issuers — and a bellwether for whether public markets will fund the next phase of China's AI build-out.

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