According to several people familiar with the matter, Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric-vehicle (EV) batteries, is in talks to participate in a major financing round for the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek. The prospective investment highlights how China’s AI boom is forging new alliances among technology firms, industrial companies, and energy providers, all competing to build the infrastructure required for the next generation of computing.