DeepSeek Backs Ex-Tencent Scientist's Robotics Startup Winverse AI, Bloomberg Reports

3-line summary

• DeepSeek has agreed to lead a seed funding round for robotics AI startup Winverse AI worth tens of millions of dollars, valuing the Hangzhou-founded 2026 startup at about $400 million post-money, Bloomberg reported, as cited by Investing.com. Meituan's Long-Z Investments is also participating; the deal has not yet been finalized and terms could change.
• The funding comes from DeepSeek's own financing round exceeding $1.2 billion currently underway, and marks one of DeepSeek's largest startup investments since its founding by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng in 2023; DeepSeek previously took a 2% stake in Shanghai-listed Unitree Robotics.
• Winverse AI founder Hu Han was formerly lead scientist of Tencent's vision-language and embodied foundation model team; his departure coincided with a restructuring of Tencent's AI research unit.

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