DeepSeek IPO: what to know and how to buy shares

When could the DeepSeek IPO take place?

While a DeepSeek IPO would likely be an extremely popular listing, there has not yet been any strong indication that the privately held company plans to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) soon.

The company was founded by CEO Liang Wenfeng after creating a quant hedge fund with some $8 billion of assets under management. Given the significant Sino-US tensions on AI development, potential US national security concerns over TikTok, and indeed the general Chinese crackdown on platform stocks like Alibaba, it may be a challenge to see DeepSeek IPO in the US.

However, it’s worth considering that the States would likely give the start-up a higher valuation, access to much deeper liquidity, and perhaps could even be designed to directly compete with established US artificial intelligence players.

Another option may be a secondary Hong Kong listing in addition to one in China, which would make it readily accessible in the west. This is a common share structure for many larger Chinese companies.

How to buy DeepSeek shares if the company lists

If DeepSeek do end up listing in the US, you can buy their shares from £0 commission with us. That's the rate if you've traded 3+ times in the previous calendar month, otherwise our standard fee is £10.

You'll be able to invest in DeepSeek right away on the day of the listing.

1. Do your research on IPOs
2. Start with out IG Invest app or open a share dealing account
3. Search for DeepSeek on our share dealing platform
4. Choose the number of shares or amount of money you wish to invest
5. Place your deal

When dealing shares, you own the stock and become a shareholder in the company. You'll profit if the share price rises above the point at which you bought, or potentially from any dividends paid. You could get back less than you put in.

You can also trade the DeepSeek IPO using leverage through a variety of products with us. This means you could gain or lose money quickly and could end up losing more than your initial deposit. This is higher risk and requires thorough risk management.

What will DeepSeek be valued at and what will the share price be?

DeepSeek is a privately held AI start-up, so there isn't currently any financial data available on the company. However, we can consider other artificial intelligence companies as benchmarks: for example, Microsoft-backed Open AI — creator of ChatGPT — sports a valuation of some $157 billion after raising $6.6 billion at this valuation in October 2024. Meanwhile, Anthropic is reportedly raising $2 billion valuing the company at $60 billion.

With DeepSeek training its AI model on a much smaller budget, but backed by Chinese investors, you might see a speculative initial valuation of circa $10 billion, though this could be might higher or lower. Its share price would likely be aimed to compete with major US tech stocks.

It’s important to re-iterate that the lack of financial data makes valuing the company very difficult at present. However, given the strength of artificial intelligence IPOs — the ARM IPO being a good example — DeepSeek may find a large pool of willing buyers among institutions and retail investors alike.

What is DeepSeek’s business model?

DeepSeek offers free AI models for researchers, developers and chatbot users — designed to build goodwill and encourage adoption of its products. In the future, it will likely sell access to premium artificial intelligence services via subscription, which would make its business strategy similar to OpenAI. You might also see custom AI solutions for companies, cloud-based AI processing, and possibly enterprise licensing for specialised use cases.

It's worth considering the company’s meteoric rise; the company shot to the top of Apple’s App Store very shortly after release, and in some areas arguably outperforms competitors including Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet-owned Gemini.

DeepSeek has controversially claimed that it has developed its model on outdated microchips, and on a shoestring training budget of circa $6 million — where the US titans have poured billions of dollars of capital expenditure into training their own models.

This claim has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly because it may pour cold water on the ‘picks and shovels’ narrative espoused by market darling Nvidia. In particular, some analysts believe the challenger sourced advanced Nvidia GPUs through Singapore, bypassing bans put in place by the US government.

For perspective, China is investing circa $137 billion over the next five years through its New AI Industry Development Action Plan. The country will doubtless be competing with the recently announced $500 billion Stargate Project in the United States, though it’s also worth considering whether China may restrict DeepSeek’s growth or perhaps future breakthroughs in the name of its sovereign interests.

But the key differentiators appear to be its low cost, much cheaper development, and perhaps above all, resource efficiency — which directly challenges the prevailing thesis that advanced AI development requires substantial computational power and investment.

Why are there DeepSeek ethical concerns?

Like many Chinese companies, there are several ESG concerns surrounding data privacy — in this case, DeepSeek retains user data on Chinese servers which could be placed under surveillance. Similar concerns exist with social media app TikTok, which has come close to being banned in the United States on several occasions.

The US Navy has already banned the use of DeepSeek for security reasons. And the AI model itself is required to follow China’s communist government’s censorship laws, including keeping topics like Tiananmen Square, Taiwan independence, and Xi Jinping off-limits. This has led to wider concerns that the chatbot could be used for propaganda or misinformation purposes.

DeepSeek has also been accused by OpenAI of ‘copying’ its homework — and there is a general lack of transparency surrounding the app.

DeepSeek-related investments

While you wait for the DeepSeek IPO, there are many artificial intelligence-focused stocks to consider. The closest large cap relative may be Alphabet given its ownership of the Gemini chatbot, though Microsoft is also a popular option given its large shareholding in OpenAI.

In recent days, Chinese platform stock Alibaba has released its own chatbot which it claims has surpassed DeepSeek — which may make it another viable choice. Fellow platform company Baidu owns Ernie Bot and may also be attractive.

For investors seeking diversification, the iShares MSCI China UCITS ETF may be worth considering. It owns 581 China-concentrated companies with a total expense ratio of 0.28%. Otherwise, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF, which counts Nvidia as its top holding and with a 0.68% expense ratio, may be preferred by investors looking for more global exposure to the theme.

DeepSeek IPO summed up

• DeepSeek was founded by CEO Liang Wenfeng after he created a quant hedge fund which now controls some $8 billion of assets under management
• DeepSeek is a privately held AI start-up, so there isn't currently any reliable financial data available on the company
• DeepSeek offers free AI models designed to build goodwill and encourage adoption of its products. In the future, it will likely sell access to premium artificial intelligence services
• China is investing circa $137 billion over the next five years into its wider AI sector through its New AI Industry Development Action Plan
• Like many Chinese companies, there are several ESG concerns surrounding data privacy