Business Reporter, BBC News
US President Donald Trump called for the rise of Chinese company Deepseek “an alarm clock” for the American technology industry, after the emergence of his artificial intelligence model (IA) triggered shock waves at Wall Street .
The actions of large technological companies such as Nvidia have dropped sharply, the chip giant losing nearly $ 600 billion (482 billion pounds sterling) in market value.
What rocked the industry was the assertion of Deepseek that his R1 model was made to a fraction of the cost of its competitors – raising questions about the future of the domination of American AI and The investment scale that US companies provide.
Deepseek has become the most downloaded free application in the United States a week after its launch.
Responding to the news, Trump said the latest developments in the Chinese AI industry could be “positive” for the United States.
“If you could do it cheaper, if you could do it [for] less [and] Access the same final result. I think it’s a good thing for us, “he told journalists on the Air Force One.
He also said that he was not concerned about the breakthrough, adding that the United States will remain a dominant actor on the ground.
Deepseek is fueled by the open source Deepseek -V3 model, which, according to its researchers, was formed for approximately $ 6 million (4.2 million pounds sterling) – much less than the billions spent by competitors. But this assertion was challenged by others in AI.
Its emergence occurs while the United States restricts the sale of advanced chip technology that feeds AI in China.
To continue their work without stable supplies of imported advanced fleas, the developers of Chinese AI have shared their work between them and have experienced new approaches to technology.
This has led to AI models that require much less computing power than before.
It also means that they cost much less than possible than possible, which has the potential to upset the industry.
On Tuesday, actions in Japanese companies linked to AI, including Adventst, SoftBank and Tokyo Electron, fell sharply, helping to lower the Nikkei 225 by around 1%.
Several other markets in Asia are closed for the new year lunar holidays.
The financial markets of mainland China will be closed from Tuesday and will reopen on February 5.
The scholarships in Taiwan and South Korea, which both have large flea manufacturing companies, are also closed.
After Deepseek-R1 was launched earlier this month, the company boasted of “performance on a par with” one of the last models of Openai when used for tasks such as mathematics, coding and reasoning in natural language.
Deepseek technology was praised by high -level figures, including Openai Sam Altman chief who called him “an impressive model, especially around what they can deliver for the price”, although He added that Optai “would obviously provide much better models” in moving before.
“Deepseek’s ability to compete with American models despite limited access to advanced hardware shows that software ingenuity and data efficiency can compensate for hardware constraints,” said Marina Zhang, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney technology, which focuses on high -tech Chinese industries.
Ion Stoica, co-founder and executive president of the AI Databricks software company, told the BBC that the lower cost of Deepseek could further encourage AI in their business.
“If this happens, this cost reduction can accelerate AI progress,” he said. “So, overall, the market will develop more quickly and market value will increase more quickly.”
The Chinese company claims that its model can be formed in 2,000 specialized chips, against around 16,000 for the leading models.
But not everyone is convinced. Some have questioned some of Deepseek’s claims, including the Elon Musk technology magnate.
He responded to a position which said that Deepseek had in fact about 50,000 Nvidia chips which were now prohibited from export to China, saying: “obviously”.
Who founded Deepseek?
The company was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng in Hangzhou, a city in southeast China.
The 40 -year -old man, a graduate of information and electronic engineering, also founded the Hedge Fund which supported Deepseek.
It was recently seen at a meeting between industry experts and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.
In an interview of July 2024 with The Chinese AcademyMr. Liang said he was surprised by the reaction to the previous version of his AI model.
“We did not expect prices to be such a sensitive problem,” he said.
“We simply followed our own rhythm, let us calculate the costs and fix the prices accordingly.”
