Chinese AI startup DeepSeek overtakes ChatGPT on Apple Store, putting investors on edge
BEIJING – Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI Assistant on Monday overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.
Powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, which its creators say “tops the leaderboard among open-source models and rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally,” the artificial intelligence application has surged in popularity among U.S. users since it was released on Jan. 10, according to app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The milestone highlights how DeepSeek has left a deep impression on Silicon Valley, upending widely held views about U.S. primacy in AI and the effectiveness of Washington’s export controls targeting China’s advanced chip and AI capabilities.
AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek require advanced chips to power their training. The Biden administration has since 2021 widened the scope of bans designed to stop these chips from being exported to China and used to train Chinese firms’ AI models.
However, DeepSeek researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million.
Although this detail has since been disputed, the claim that the chips used were less powerful than the most advanced Nvidia products Washington has sought to keep out of China, as well as the relatively cheap training costs, has prompted U.S. tech executives to question the effectiveness of tech export controls.
Little is known about the company behind DeepSeek, a small Hangzhou-based startup founded in 2023, when search engine giant Baidu released the first Chinese AI large-language model.
Since then, dozens of Chinese tech companies, large and small, have released their own AI models, but DeepSeek is the first to be praised by the U.S. tech industry as matching or even surpassing the performance of cutting-edge U.S. models.
In parallel, U.S. stock futures and Asian shares outside China slumped on Monday as investors weighed the implications of DeepSeek’s launch of its free, open-source AI model.
U.S. Nasdaq Composite futures NQc1 tumbled 2.3% as of 0634 GMT, and S&P 500 futures EScv1 sank 1.3%.
Japan’s Nikkei .N225 dropped 0.9%, reversing an initial advance. New Zealand’s equity benchmark. NZ50 slipped 0.2%, and Singapore’s Straits Times index. STIeased 0.1%.
At the same time, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. HSI rallied 1% and mainland blue chips. CSI300 added 0.1%, even after data showed a surprise contraction in manufacturing this month.
Pan-European STOXX 50 futures STXEc1 dropped 0.9%.
