Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek has told prospective investors in its second fundraising round that it is suspending the deal for now, days after comments widely attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng about US-Chinese AI competition went viral.The Chinese AI pioneer verbally informed some would-be backers that they would not be signing investment agreements in the coming days as expected. DeepSeek might choose to resume the deal process at a later date. The suspension stemmed in part from Liang's frustration over online reports about his comments to investors during his first financing deal, which closed in June and raised $7 billion.Bloomberg has not verified the authenticity of those posts, which concerned a transcript of a meeting Liang held with unidentified parties. Chinese media reported that the billionaire founder discussed a reliance on Nvidia chips for AI development and China's persistent lag in AI sophistication relative to the US.Negotiations remain fluid and the company may still choose to proceed. The talks kicked off weeks after DeepSeek closed its record first financing round, securing backers including Tencent and CATL.DeepSeek was aiming to raise at least 10 billion yuan in a follow-on deal, targeting a pre-money valuation of at least 480 billion yuan, up from roughly $50 billion in its first round. The company has also begun preparations for an IPO and may file as soon as this year.Founded in 2023 and owned by hedge fund Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, DeepSeek drew enormous interest as a centerpiece of China's effort to compete globally on AI. Liang's net worth more than doubled to $36 billion after the first fundraising round, making him the world's richest AI model creator.