Plus: SK Telecom is creating an AI data-center company backed by KKR. And Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph rejoins Google. Imani Moise hosts.
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[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_00] Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, August 27. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. DeepSeek is set to secure new funding that would value the Chinese AI startup at $74 billion as it targets an IPO next year. People familiar with the matter say the company is seeking to raise $7.4 billion to bankroll research and development and its build-out of computing infrastructure.
[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00] The fundraising would mark a step up from DeepSeek's previous $50 billion valuation in June. The latest round includes existing shareholders like Monolith Management as well as Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amprex Technology. Several funds backed by Chinese local government vehicles are also planning to invest, according to people familiar with the matter.
[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00] KKR and a consortium of South Korean firms are investing $2.2 billion in an AI data center company being created by SK Telecom through a spinoff. The company plans to carve data center and submarine cable businesses out of subsidiary SK Broadband and form a new company called SK Horizon, completing SK Telecom's plan to establish an AI data center infrastructure business.
[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00] The push comes as South Korea doubles down on building a complete AI ecosystem on home soil, seeking to scale up data center capacity and secure AI sovereignty. And Barrett Zoff, co-founder and former CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, is joining Google as vice president of research to focus on reinforcement learning and post-training for Gemini.
[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00] Zoff previously worked at Google from 2016 to 2022 before moving to OpenAI, leaving to co-found Thinking Machines in early 2025 and then rejoining OpenAI the following year after being fired by CEO Mira Murati. In his most recent role at OpenAI, Zoff was charged with getting businesses to use the company's Codex coding product. His new role at Google comes during a major AI restructuring at the company, following the recent departures of high-profile researchers.
[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_00] And that's your TNB Tech Minute. We'll be back this afternoon with more.