(Yicai) April 28 -- Liang Wenfeng, who set up DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence almost three years ago, has used his own money to increase the Chinese startup’s registered capital by 50 percent, following a report that it is in investment talks with Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.

DeepSeek’s registered capital has been increased to CNY15 million (USD2.2 million) from CNY10 million, data on corporate information app Tianyancha showed today. The uplift was funded entirely by Liang, whose contribution has risen to CNY5.1 million (USD746 million) from CNY100,000 (USD14,630) and whose shareholding has jumped to 34 percent from 1 percent.

As the firm’s actual controller, Liang’s effective ownership is now 84.3 percent, while the stake of Ningbo Cheng’en Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership Enterprise has fallen to 66 percent from 99 percent.

DeepSeek is looking to raise at least USD300 million at a valuation of more than USD10 billion, according to an April 17 report by media outlet The Information.

Chinese tech titans Alibaba and Tencent are in talks to invest in DeepSeek, The Information also reported last week, citing four sources familiar with the matter. The target valuation has reportedly been raised to over USD20 billion, and the size of the financing could be scaled up as well.

DeepSeek has yet to publicly comment on the matter.

It would be the Hangzhou-based company’s first ever outside investment. DeepSeek has relied on profits from its parent company to sustain operations.

With AI model training costs continuing to rise, competition intensifying, and some key researchers departing for rivals such as TikTok owner ByteDance and Xiaomi, Liang’s long-standing aversion to outside funding may have softened.

Editor: Kim Taylor