DeepSeek plans to appoint GL Ventures partner Yan Wentao as its first chief financial officer, adding capital-markets experience as the Chinese AI developer seeks external financing and prepares for a potential Shanghai STAR Market initial public offering. The company has appointed underwriters including CITIC Securities and hopes to begin the IPO process this year. Reuters reported that DeepSeek aims to raise 50 billion yuan in its current funding round, while another pre-IPO financing could value the company at about 500 billion yuan, or $74 billion. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 and initially funded by its founder through quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer. Its lower-cost AI models have become central to the investment case, as Chinese developers narrow performance gaps with US rivals while competing aggressively on inference pricing.