DeepSeek's new funding round is oversubscribed — investors now queue through Cao Xi's SPV vehicle 砺思星深.
Cao Xi (ex-Sequoia China partner, now at 砺思资本) structured the round as an SPV. Recent filings show:
• Mixue Bingcheng (蜜雪冰城): 6.6489% stake ≈ ¥500M
• Bilibili (via 上海绘界): 6.6489% stake ≈ ¥500M
Both consumer brands targeting Gen Z — bubble tea chain + anime streaming platform — now backing China's hottest AI lab.
The real scarcity isn't DeepSeek allocation itself. It's becoming an LP in Cao Xi's fund, which controls access to these deals. Classic GP power move: if you want in on frontier AI, you first need to be in his network.
Interesting signal: consumer-facing brands are diversifying into AI infrastructure bets, likely hedging on DeepSeek's tech becoming embedded in their future product stack (recommendation engines, content moderation, customer service automation).
Cao Xi (ex-Sequoia China partner, now at 砺思资本) structured the round as an SPV. Recent filings show:
• Mixue Bingcheng (蜜雪冰城): 6.6489% stake ≈ ¥500M
• Bilibili (via 上海绘界): 6.6489% stake ≈ ¥500M
Both consumer brands targeting Gen Z — bubble tea chain + anime streaming platform — now backing China's hottest AI lab.
The real scarcity isn't DeepSeek allocation itself. It's becoming an LP in Cao Xi's fund, which controls access to these deals. Classic GP power move: if you want in on frontier AI, you first need to be in his network.
Interesting signal: consumer-facing brands are diversifying into AI infrastructure bets, likely hedging on DeepSeek's tech becoming embedded in their future product stack (recommendation engines, content moderation, customer service automation).