DeepSeek Leads Multi-Million-Dollar Seed Round in Robotics AI Startup Winverse AI

On October 12, Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek has agreed to lead a multi-million-dollar seed round in Winverse AI, a robotics AI startup founded by former Tencent scientist Hu Han. According to sources, the deal could value the company, which was established only months ago, at approximately $400 million. Meituan's Long-Z Investments and other investors have also committed to the round. The transaction has not been finalized, and the valuation and investor participation could still change.

Winverse AI, founded by Hu Han in 2026, focuses on developing AI models for robots, aiming to enable robots to understand voice commands and handle complex real-world tasks rather than just executing pre-set actions or motion control. Hu previously led Tencent's visual language and embodied foundation model team, and holds a PhD from Tsinghua University. He also worked at Microsoft Research Asia and Baidu.

The investment would be one of DeepSeek's largest external startup investments to date. DeepSeek previously invested in Unitree Robotics, participating in its IPO with approximately 141 million yuan in August 2026. DeepSeek's latest funding round raised nearly 80 billion yuan, with part of the proceeds expected to support joint development with external startups. China's strength in humanoid robot hardware manufacturing remains prominent, but giving robots the intelligence to understand and handle complex tasks is still a major industry challenge.