DeepSeek makes V4-Pro API 75% cheaper permanent, raises $10B at $45B valuation

DeepSeek announced that its 75% discount on the V4-Pro API, previously a temporary promotion, is now permanent. The V4-Pro model—DeepSeek's most capable offering—now costs $0.435 per million uncached input tokens, dramatically undercutting major competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. This aggressive pricing move resets market expectations for AI inference costs, especially benefiting startups and developers who rely on high-volume API usage. The permanent price cut is expected to accelerate adoption of the V4-Pro for production workloads, including RAG pipelines, real-time agents, and large-scale content generation.

In parallel, DeepSeek is in advanced discussions to secure a $10 billion funding round that would value the company at $45 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. Founder Liang Wenfeng has publicly stated that the company prioritizes pushing AI boundaries and maintaining an open-source ethos over short-term monetization. This philosophy, combined with the permanent API price reduction, positions DeepSeek as a formidable challenger to Western AI giants. The funding would fuel further model development and expand infrastructure, potentially deepening the ongoing price war in the AI model market.