DeepSeek’s $15.9B Round Lifts October Venture Funding to $59B

By Rebecca Stone

DeepSeek’s $15.9 billion funding round, the largest venture transaction ever recorded for a Chinese company, valued the startup at $90 billion and helped lift global venture funding to $59 billion in October 2026, up 45% from a year earlier, according to Crunchbase data. It came in the same month that two other frontier labs raised Series A rounds totaling at or close to $1 billion.

The United States and China accounted for the bulk of October’s startup investment, with U.S.-based companies raising $28 billion and Chinese companies raising $20.6 billion. China’s monthly total last exceeded $20 billion in June 2018, when Ant Group raised $14 billion in Series C funding.

How concentrated was October’s capital?

Seven companies raised billion-dollar rounds, accounting for just over 40% of October’s venture funding. The recipients spanned frontier labs, manufacturing, energy, semiconductors, prediction markets and spend-management software. Private equity led much of the funding, while multistage venture firms Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Lux Capital also participated.

DeepSeek’s $90 billion valuation placed it among Crunchbase’s 10 most highly funded private companies. It ranked as the second-most-valuable Chinese company after ByteDance and the third-most-valuable private frontier lab after Anthropic and OpenAI.

Moonshot AI, a rival open-source lab, reportedly reached a $50 billion valuation in October, placing it 11th on The Crunchbase Unicorn Board. It has also reportedly confidentially filed to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Which companies drew the largest checks?

Massachusetts-based Re:Build raised $2.1 billion, October’s second-largest round. The manufacturing startup works with industrial companies and innovators from product design through large-scale production and said it "has 2.4 million square feet of manufacturing capacity."

• Axiom raised $2 billion to build power and grid capacity for data centers.
• Ramp raised $1.85 billion and said its "ARR has reached $2 billion."
• Tenstorrent, an open-source semiconductor company, raised a $1.5 billion Series E and recently moved its headquarters from Canada to Silicon Valley.
• Kalshi raised a $1 billion Series E for its prediction-market business.
• Flapping Airplanes, a frontier lab, raised a $1 billion Series A.

Eight additional companies raised more than $500 million, spanning frontier labs, robotics, legal and chip companies, agentic AI and healthcare. TypeSafe AI said it raised an $870 million Series A following rapid developer adoption of its decision model Jev.

AI-driven companies captured 66% of global funding in October. Crunchbase also reported that semiconductor companies gained market share during the month.

What is driving the IPO and M&A pipeline?

The U.S. IPO market was slow in anticipation of Anthropic’s November IPO. The offering could surpass even SpaceX’s record-setting June listing, which raised $85.7 billion.

At least nine venture-backed companies changed hands in acquisitions valued above $1 billion during October, including Uber’s $2.3 billion purchase of 19-year-old ezCater.

What could define the year-end?

With two months remaining in 2026, the year has already set records for acquisitions, IPOs and funding rounds across major venture markets. October extended that momentum, but it also sharpened the cycle’s concentration: seven companies took just over 40% of global funding, and AI-driven businesses captured 66%.

The immediate test is whether that momentum spreads before Anthropic lists in what could be the largest IPO ever.

How did Crunchbase count the month?

Crunchbase said the report draws directly from its reported data, current as of Nov. 2, 2026. The database excluded Cohere’s announced $5 billion funding target because the company had reported neither an initial nor a final close. Crunchbase said reporting lags are strongest at the earliest venture stages, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after quarter- or year-end.

All values are in U.S. dollars. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies at the prevailing spot rate when it reports a round, acquisition, IPO or other financial event, and retains that historic rate even if it adds the event to its database later.

Crunchbase defines its funding categories as follows:

• Seed and angel: Seed, pre-seed and angel rounds, plus venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million or less, in U.S. dollars or the as-converted equivalent.
• Early stage: Series A and Series B rounds, plus unknown-series venture rounds, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million and up to $15 million.
• Late stage: Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered rounds, plus unknown-series venture rounds, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Crunchbase includes corporate rounds only when the company has previously raised equity funding in a seed-through-venture-series round.
• Technology growth: A private-equity round raised by a company that previously raised a venture round.

The year-end competitive question is whether funding will spread beyond the seven companies that raised billion-dollar rounds in October, or stay concentrated around AI and semiconductor leaders as Anthropic prepares its November listing.