According to Beating, although both companies initially participated in the startup's first major funding round, the financing negotiations between DeepSeek and Alibaba in April still broke down. The core dispute centered on ecosystem integration: Alibaba wanted to further deepen its control over the AI ecosystem through its Tongyi and Qianwen divisions on platforms such as Taobao and Amap, while DeepSeek prioritized maintaining technological independence and minimizing contractual constraints. DeepSeek’s valuation in this round was approximately $450 billion, with funds going toward computing power and research and development, despite the startup rejecting a controlling-stake offer to preserve its autonomy.