DeepSeek Sets Record with $15.9B Round, Lifting Global October Venture Funding to $59B
DeepSeek's $15.9 billion raise, the largest ever for a Chinese startup, drove global October venture funding up 45% year-over-year to $59 billion.
Global venture funding in October 2026 reached $59 billion, a 45% increase from a year earlier, according to Crunchbase data. This surge was largely driven by Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek completing a $15.9 billion funding round, the largest-ever venture deal for a Chinese startup.
The raise values DeepSeek at $90 billion, placing it among the top 10 most highly funded private companies globally. It also makes DeepSeek the second most valuable Chinese company after ByteDance and the third most valuable private frontier lab after U.S. companies Anthropic and OpenAI.
Funding was highly concentrated, with seven companies raising billion-dollar rounds accounting for over 40% of the month's total. Other significant deals included U.S. manufacturing startup Re:Build ($2.1 billion), data center power infrastructure firm Axiom ($2 billion), and spend management platform Ramp ($1.85 billion).
Geographically, the U.S. and China dominated, raising $28 billion and $20.6 billion respectively. This marks the first time since June 2018 that China saw more than $20 billion invested in a single month. Additionally, rival open-source lab Moonshot AI reportedly reached a $50 billion valuation and has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO.
AI-driven companies captured 66% of global funding, with semiconductor firms also gaining market share. On the exit front, at least nine venture-backed companies were acquired for over $1 billion, including Uber's $2.3 billion acquisition of ezCater.