Business and economy·July 15, 2026, 16:11

DeepSeek hit by two outages overnight, cause unknown

AI-generated from the sources listed.

Chinese AI service DeepSeek was disrupted for more than eight hours overnight between March 29 and 30, 2026. The company has not said why, and reports suggest an IPO is in the works.

Chinese AI service DeepSeek suffered two outages in late March 2026. According to Estonian tech outlet abit.ee, the service was disrupted for a combined total of more than eight hours overnight.

The first outage began around 9:30 p.m. local time on March 29 and lasted about two hours. A second outage hit early in the morning on March 30 and lasted until 10:33 a.m. local time.

DeepSeek has not said what caused the problems. During earlier outages around the launch of the R1 model, the issues were blamed on overwhelming demand. Whether the same applies this time is not clear from the sources.

Running on Huawei hardware

The Next Web reports that DeepSeek's cloud service runs on Huawei hardware rather than Nvidia chips. However, the sources do not link the outages to Huawei chips, so no connection has been documented.

According to abit.ee, citing the outlet K1, DeepSeek is also preparing a new V4 model. It is said to be multimodal, meaning it can work with images, video and text. Huawei and Cambricon are named as hardware partners.

IPO and funding

The Next Web, citing Bloomberg, reports that DeepSeek is preparing an IPO. The company could file as early as this year, with the actual debut targeted for 2027. No exchange has been confirmed. The market expects the listing to take place on the Chinese mainland or in Hong Kong. According to a person who spoke with Bloomberg, DeepSeek is working with advisers to finalize its financial statements by the end of December.

In June 2026, DeepSeek closed a first outside funding round of about USD 7 billion at a valuation of about USD 50 billion, The Next Web reports.

In July, Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek is negotiating a new round of at least 10 billion yuan (about USD 1.5 billion) at a pre-investment valuation of at least about USD 71 billion. The amount could end up significantly higher.

According to The Information, DeepSeek's annualized revenue is about USD 400-500 million.

For everyday users, this means an AI service they rely on daily can go down without explanation. It is also a reminder that stability becomes more important as companies approach the public markets.