Recent media reports have revealed that several companies associated with Huang Le have made significant investments in the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek. The motive behind these investments appears to be establishing a consistent supply of Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips to DeepSeek.
Huang Le has been implicated in an extramarital affair with Jensen Huang, the former CEO of Nvidia. Additionally, there are allegations that she engaged in espionage activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, assisting Beijing in acquiring Nvidia’s most advanced chips, which are subject to U.S. export bans.
According to a report by the U.S. technology media outlet The Information, three insiders have disclosed that these investments in DeepSeek had not been reported publicly prior to this. One insider elaborated that Huang Le’s objective in investing in DeepSeek was to facilitate a closer relationship, allowing her affiliated companies to secure a steady supply of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips.
The report also pointed out that, like many other AI enterprises in China, DeepSeek has been heavily constrained by U.S. export controls on advanced chips imposed since late 2022. Despite its leading position in leveraging Huawei chips, DeepSeek has sought to obtain more Nvidia Blackwell chips for research purposes, using them as backups when Huawei chips fail to perform as expected.
In the span of DeepSeek’s second round of fundraising from July to October, employees introduced Century LiTong and its parent company, Jiangsu LiTong Electronics, which is publicly traded in Shanghai, to various investors. These two firms are collectively known in the industry as “LiTong Company.” DeepSeek’s staff emphasized the significance of LiTong Company as a key supplier of AI chips on the black market, asserting that they were worthy of receiving allocations in a highly competitive fundraising environment.
According to insiders, LiTong Company ultimately participated in the second round of funding that DeepSeek completed in October. This round raised a staggering 105.5 billion yuan (approximately $15.8 billion), representing the largest financing event to date for a Chinese AI firm. Consequently, DeepSeek’s valuation reached about 615.5 billion yuan (around $92 billion).
The fundraising round attracted nearly thirty investors, many of whom were major Chinese tech conglomerates and state-affiliated enterprises, with Tencent and the battery giant CATL making the largest contributions. However, the exact amount invested by LiTong Company remains unclear.
The investments were made through special purpose entities established by the investors, meaning that LiTong Company’s name does not appear directly on DeepSeek’s shareholder list. One of the investments was carried out by an entity created by the Beijing venture capital firm Monolith Management.
Records obtained from the stock exchange and related Chinese corporate documentation indicate that LiTong Electronics invested approximately 95 million yuan (roughly $14 million) into this entity. The total investment amount from LiTong Company is yet to be confirmed.
It is noteworthy that Century LiTong, founded in 2023, quickly obtained priority cloud partnership status with Nvidia just four months later. Its business operations include managing data centers and renting out Nvidia graphics processors.
Earlier reports indicated that Century LiTong has imported 240,000 Nvidia chips since 2023, valued at no less than $7.5 billion. Two other insiders mentioned that despite the U.S. crackdown on chip smuggling since the end of last year, Century LiTong has still managed to import Blackwell chips successfully.
Huang Le has never held shares or served as an executive in either Century LiTong or LiTong Electronics. Her connections to these companies have emerged through various transactions and changes in equity involving her sister and brother-in-law.
Currently, the scale of investment in DeepSeek and whether commitments to supply chips have been fulfilled remain unverified. The U.S. is actively investigating chip smuggling operations worth billions of dollars related to China.