DeepSeek (深度求索) has agreed to lead a seed financing round worth tens of millions of US dollars for Winverse AI, a startup founded this year by former Tencent scientist Hu Han (胡瀚), Bloomberg reported on October 12. The proposed round would value the company at approximately US$400 million after the investment and includes commitments from Meituan’s Long-Z Investments (龙珠资本).
The transaction has not been finalized, and its valuation and investor participation could change, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. Hu, DeepSeek and Long-Z did not respond to the outlet’s requests for comment. Winverse remains in stealth mode, with limited public information about its products and commercialization plans.
Hu previously led Tencent’s vision-language and embodied foundation model teams. His departure came as Tencent reorganized its AI research operations. Bloomberg described Winverse as developing AI for robots, although the startup has yet to publicly detail its technical approach or target applications.
The proposed investment follows DeepSeek’s earlier involvement with Unitree Robotics (宇树科技). Reuters reported in August that DeepSeek invested CNY 140.8 million through Unitree’s Shanghai IPO and agreed to jointly develop AI models for humanoid robots. That cooperation links DeepSeek’s model expertise with Unitree’s mechanical engineering, motion control and embodied-intelligence capabilities.
Together, the investments suggest that DeepSeek is seeking closer relationships with companies working on physical-world AI. Robotics requires models that can interpret changing surroundings and translate instructions into reliable actions, alongside hardware, training data and deployment experience. An equity investment could support that collaboration, but the reported Winverse terms do not establish exclusivity, control or a joint product-development agreement.
The international implications remain prospective. No overseas customers, deployments or expansion plans have been disclosed for Winverse. For readers tracking Chinese AI’s global development, the deal is an early sign of investment in capabilities that could eventually support robotics exports. Its commercial significance will depend on whether the financing closes and whether Winverse can turn its research into products that perform reliably outside controlled demonstrations.
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