Donald Trump believes that the Chinese startup DeepSeek, which claims to have a technical advantage over US competitors, should serve as a wake-up call for American AI companies.
DeepSeek asserts that its artificial intelligence models are on par with those of US giants like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini, but at potentially a lower cost.
This has led to a decline in various US stocks, particularly for the leading AI chipmaker Nvidia, which suffered a record one-day loss on Wall Street during Monday’s trading.
While Nvidia’s shares partially recovered on Tuesday, increasing more than 7%, after the initial shock subsided and the US president expressed his belief that the success of the Chinese firm could benefit America’s AI ambitions.
“The emergence of DeepSeek, an AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our industries to focus on competing to succeed,” stated Mr. Trump in Florida.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has promised to outperform rival firm DeepSeek. Pic: AP
He highlighted DeepSeek’s efficiency in utilizing fewer computing resources. “I see that as a positive asset… you won’t be spending as much, and you’ll hopefully achieve the same results,” he added.
On Monday, DeepSeek’s AI assistant surpassed ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged his rival in a post on X, reacting to DeepSeek’s R1 “reasoning” model – a key part of their AI technology that answers questions.
“DeepSeek’s R1 is an impressive model, especially in terms of what they can deliver for the price,” he remarked.
However, Mr. Altman also expressed determination: “We will undoubtedly deliver superior models and it’s exciting to have a new competitor! We will step up our releases.”
There have been concerns that DeepSeek could undermine the potential $500bn (£401bn) AI investment by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank in Stargate, which Mr. Trump announced last week at the White House.
The project aims to significantly increase computing power to advance AI development.
Despite addressing Republicans in Miami on Monday, Mr. Trump remained optimistic. He mentioned that Chinese leaders had informed him that the US possesses the most brilliant scientists in the world.
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He suggested that if Chinese industry could develop cheaper AI technology, US companies would follow suit.
“We always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive that could be very much a positive development.
“So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution,” Mr. Trump said.
Despite the intense focus on the Chinese firm, not all news has been positive. DeepSeek reported experiencing “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services.
The company disclosed that it was targeted by a cyber attack on Monday, which disrupted users’ ability to register on the site.