DeepSeek

DeepSeek Near $7 Billion AI Funding Deal

DeepSeek is close to finalizing a $7.4 billion funding deal, one of the largest startup financings in China. The investment includes Tencent Holdings Ltd. and the company's founder. This deal highlights the growing strength of China's domestic AI industry, which is seeking capital to compete with major U.S. players like OpenAI. The funding is expected to accelerate the development of AI technologies and strengthen the company's position in the global market.

Bloomberg — Technology

Code Shapes AI Agent Behavior

A new review paper suggests that the software layer surrounding a language model, rather than the model itself, is the key to creating autonomous AI agents. This 'harness' includes tools, memory, testing, and permission boundaries that enable stateless models to function as working agents. A dedicated team at Deepseek in Beijing is already exploring this concept, with a core formula that supports the thesis: model + harness = AI agent.

The Decoder