US President Donald Trump has described the success of China’s AI chatbot DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for America’s technology industry, after the Chinese startup’s latest model, R1, surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT to become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store.
DeepSeek’s rise has caused a stir in Silicon Valley, triggering a sharp selloff in tech stocks, including a $500 billion market value loss for Nvidia.
Speaking at a Republican congressional retreat in Miami, Trump emphasized the need for US tech firms to refocus on innovation. “Hopefully, the release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” Trump stated.
DeepSeek, a little-known startup based in Hangzhou, has developed its AI models using cost-efficient methods. According to its researchers, their V3 model was trained on 2,000 Nvidia H800 chips for under $6 million.
Stock Market Reaction
The emergence of DeepSeek has rattled global markets. On Monday, Nvidia’s shares plummeted, dragging down other major US tech firms, while tech-focused shares in Japan also saw a steep decline.
