CATL Eyes Stake in DeepSeek’s $10B Round, Fuels Green AI Data Center Race

Battery behemoth CATL is reportedly planning to join a massive $10 billion funding round for Chinese AI unicorn DeepSeek, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move underscores CATL's ambition to expand its footprint in power supply and energy storage for AI data centers. E-commerce giant JD.com and gaming titan NetEase are also in advanced talks to participate.

The investment makes strategic sense: DeepSeek is racing to build its own hyperscale data centers in regions rich in renewable energy, like Inner Mongolia, and is actively recruiting datacenter engineers. Under China's "green computing" and "Eastern Data, Western Computing" policies, these new facilities must maximize wind and solar power usage. CATL offers a full suite of backup power, industrial-scale electrochemical energy storage systems (ESS), and green energy management — exactly what DeepSeek needs for a competitive edge. CATL has already invested $942 million in data center operator VNET and taken a stake in power equipment supplier ZTE Energy.