Chinese AI model overtakes chatgpt for top app charts

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app Deepseek has overtaken Chatgpt and other rivals to become the top-rated free application in Apple’s App Store in the US, UK and China.

The app has surged in popularity since its launch in January, challenging the widely held belief that America is the untouchable leader of the AI ​​industry.

It’s powered by the open-source Deepseek-V3 model, which its researchers claim was developed for less than $6M—significantly less than the billions spent by rivals.

But this claim has been disputed by others in the AI ​​space.

After DeepSeek-R1 was launched earlier this month The company boasted “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”in 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 big 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 puts $500 billion In AI infrastructure in Texas.

The company was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng in Hangzhou, a city in southeast China.

The 40-year-old, an information and electronic engineering graduate, also founded the hedge fund that backed Deepseek.

He reportedly Built a shop with 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 those chips with cheaper, lower-end chips still available for import.

Mr. Liang was recently spotted at a meeting between industry experts and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.