DeepSeek, the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the US, UK, and China, has overtaken ChatGPT and another AI competitors.
Since its January release, the app has soared in popularity, challenging the widely held notion that America is the invincible head of the Artificial industry.
It is powered by the open-source DeepSeek-V3 design, which its scientists say was developed for less than$ 6m- significantly less than the trillions spent by competitors.
However, others in the AI storage have disputed this assertion.
After DeepSeek-R1 was launched earlier this month the company boasted of “performance on par with” one of ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s latest models – when used for tasks such as maths, coding and natural language reasoning.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Donald Trump advisor Marc Andreessen described DeepSeek-R1 as “AI’s Sputnik moment”, in a reference to the first artificial Earth satellite that was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.
Advanced bits enable AI types like DeepSeek and ChatGPT to be trained.
However, the US government has tightened its ban on selling sophisticated cards to China since 2021.
Chinese AI engineers have shared their labor with each other and experimented with new techniques to the systems in order to continue their work without constant supplies of imported developed chips.
As a result, AI types now require significantly less processing power than they did before. Additionally, it means that they cost significantly less than what was formerly believed possible, which has the ability to destroy the sector.
Shares in AI-related firms based in the US, such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta were lower on Monday morning.
According to some estimates, DeepSeek training will cost less than the typical US AI companies.
Vey-Sern Ling, a Singapore-based technology capital advisor, told the BBC:” It could possibly undermine the investment case for the entire Artificial supply chain, which is driven by substantial spending from a small number of hyperscalers.
Citi, a major bank on Wall Street, warned that while DeepSeek may challenge the strong positions of American companies, such as OpenAI, Chinese firms ‘ issues might hinder their growth.
” We estimate that in an undoubtedly more stringent environment, US ‘ access to more sophisticated chips is an benefit”, its analysts said in a statement.
Last week, a consortium of US tech firms and foreign investors announced The Stargate Project, a company which is putting $500bn into AI infrastructure in Texas.
The company was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng in Hangzhou, a city in southeastern China.
The 40-year-old, an information and electronic engineering graduate, also founded the hedge fund that backed DeepSeek.
He reportedly built up a store of Nvida A100 chips, now banned from export to China. Experts believe this collection – which some estimates put at 50,000 – led him to launch DeepSeek, by pairing these chips with cheaper, lower-end ones that are still available to import.
Mr. Liang recently attended a meeting between industry experts and the Chinese premier Li Qiang.