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What is DeepSeek and why did it cause tech stocks to drop?

January 28, 2025 1:52 pm

[ Source: BBC ]

 

An AI-powered chatbot by the Chinese company DeepSeek has quickly become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s store, following its January release in the US.

The app’s sudden popularity, as well as DeepSeek’s reportedly low costs compared to those of US-based AI companies, have thrown financial markets into a spin.

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Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has hailed DeepSeek as “one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs” in AI.

The company says its latest AI models are on par with industry-leading models in the US – like ChatGPT – at a fraction of the cost.

Researchers behind the app have said it only took $6m (£4.8m) to build it, much less than the billions spent by AI companies in the US.