(Yicai) Feb. 20 -- An insider at DeepSeek has rebutted a US media report that said the Chinese artificial intelligence developer is considering outside funding, according to Securities Times.

Securities Times reported today that the source at the Hangzhou-based company said the report published by The Information yesterday was just a “rumor.”

The Information said DeepSeek is weighing raising outside funding for the first time as it faces pressure to expand its computing infrastructure due to surging demand. Internal discussions have begun on whether to make such a move to pay for more AI chips and servers, the report said, citing sources with knowledge of those conversations.

Sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation and the National Social Security Fund have approached DeepSeek about potential investments, The Information said. Executives at DeepSeek and its hedge fund owner High-Flyer Quant are evaluating whether to transition from a research-focused entity to a revenue-driven commercial enterprise, it said.

The release on Jan. 20 of the large language model DeepSeek-R1, whose performance compares favourably with leading LLMs, but at a fraction of the cost, stunned Silicon Valley, policymakers, and investors around the world.

Established in December 2023, DeepSeek has experienced multiple service outages as a result of overwhelming user demand since releasing the open-source model, The Information noted. Scaling up AI chip and server resources is critical to handling rising traffic and supporting ongoing model development, prompting the outside funding considerations.

An executive at Alibaba Group Holding denied that the Chinese e-commerce giant planned to invest USD1 billion for 10 percent of DeepSeek following another rumour earlier this month.

Editor: Martin Kadiev