DeepSeek paused its second fundraising round after comments said to have come from founder Liang Wenfeng about the artificial intelligence competition between the U.S. and China went viral, Bloomberg reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Chinese AI startup verbally informed investors about the suspension partly due to Liang's reaction to online reports about his comments during DeepSeek's first funding round that raised $7 billion, the report said.
DeepSeek could still choose to proceed, as negotiations are still flexible, the report said.
The AI lab did not immediately respond to a request for comment from.
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