DeepSeek is moving to appoint its first chief financial officer ahead of an initial public offering, as it accelerates fundraising and listing preparations. It is considering Yen Wen-tao of GL Ventures, part of Hillhouse Investment, for the role. DeepSeek has widened market share with low-cost, high-performance models but needs significant funding for chips, computing infrastructure and talent. It has selected underwriters including CITIC Securities and is said to be targeting Shanghai’s STAR Market, alongside pre-IPO fundraising.

Big tech companies are moving faster into so-called physical AI that applies AI in the real world, including robots, cars and drones, as they seek to secure an early lead in a market seen as smaller than chatbots for now but with high potential. Nvidia, AWS, SoftBank, Anthropic and Xpeng are among those expanding initiatives. South Korean companies and institutions are also stepping up projects, funding and partnerships, even as concerns persist about data shortages and reliability.