Deepseek: Chinese AI model overtakes Chatgpt for top app charts

After DeepSeek-R1 was launched earlier this month The company boasted, external “Performance on par with” One of Chatgpt Maker Openai’s latest models – when used for tasks like math, coding and natural language.

Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist and Donald Trump advisor Marc Andreessen described DeepSeek-R1 as “Ai’s Sputnik Moment”, externalin a reference to the first artificial Earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

Advanced chips power the training of AI models such as ChatGpt and Deepseek.

But since 2021, the US government has expanded its restrictions on advanced chips sold to China.

To continue their work without stable supplies of imported advanced chips, Chinese AI developers have been sharing their work with each other and experimenting with new approaches to the technology.

This has resulted in AI models that require far less computing power than before. It also means they cost much less than previously thought possible, which has the potential to boost the industry.

Shares of AI-related companies based in the United States, such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta, were Monday morning.

Some estimates put the cost of training Deepseek at a fraction of the major US AI firms.

“It could potentially derail the investment case for the entire AI supply chain, which is driven by high spending from a small handful of hyperscalers,” Singapore-based tech equity adviser Vey-Sern Ling told the BBC.

But Wall Street banking giant Citi warned that while Deepseek could challenge the dominant positions of US companies such as Openai issues facing Chinese firms could hamper their development.

“We estimate that US access to more advanced chips in an inevitably more restrictive environment is an advantage,” its analysts said in a report.

Last week, a consortium of American tech companies and foreign investors announced the Stargate project, a company that is putting $500 billion into In AI infrastructure in Texas.