Trump warns about ‘waking calls’ for US technology companies

US President Donald Trump called the rise of Chinese company Deepseek “a call to wake up” for the American technology industry, after the appearance of the artificial intelligence model (AI) activated the shockwave. On Wall Street.

Shares in large technology companies like NVIDIA have plummeted, with a chip giant losing nearly $ 600 billion (482 billion pounds) in terms of market value.

What has shaken the industry is Deepseek’s statement that its R1 model has been done with part of its competitors – asking questions about the future of American AI dominance. and the scale of investment companies that US companies are planning.

Deepseek has become the most free download application in the US just a week after it was launched.

Answering the news, Trump said the latest developments in China’s AI industry could be “positive” to the United States.

“If you can do it cheaper, if you can do that [for] Less [and] Receive the final result. I think it is a good thing for us, “he told reporters on Air Force One.

He also said that he did not care about the breakthrough, adding the United States would still be a dominant player in this field.

Deepseek is provided by the DeepSeeK -V3 model, which its researchers claim to have been trained for about $ 6 million (4.2 million pounds) – significantly less than billions of limbs. pepper of rivals. But this statement was disputed by others.

Its appearance occurs when the US is restricting the sale of advanced chip technology provided to China.

In order to continue their work without providing stabilization of advanced imported chips, Chinese AI developers shared their work with each other and tested new methods for technology.

This has led to AI models that require much less calculation power than before.

It also means that they have a much lower price than previously possible thoughts, which is capable of improving industry.

On Tuesday, stocks related to AI companies include Advantest, Softbank and Tokyo Electron have dropped sharply, helping to push the Nikkei 225 benchmark to about 1%.

Some other markets in Asia are closed for the New Year holiday.

The financial market of mainland China will be closed from Tuesday and will reopen on February 5.

Securities exchange in Taiwan and South Korea, both have large chip production companies, are also closed.

After DeepSeeK-R1 was launched earlier this month, the company was proud of “Peer-to-peer performance with one of the latest models of Openai when used for tasks such as math, encryption and Natural language theory.

Deepseek’s technology has been praised by high -end figures including the Director of Openai Sam Altman, who called it “an impressive model, especially around what they can offer at price”. , although he added that Openai will “provide much better models” moving ahead.

“Deepseek’s ability to compete with the US models, despite having limited access to hardware, improves prove that the skill of the software and data efficiency can compensate for the constraints. Hardware, ”said Marina Zhang, Associate Professor at Sydney University of Technology, who focused on China’s high industries.

Stoica ion, co -founder and executive president of AI Software Company Datababs, tells BBC that Deepseek’s lower cost can promote many AI companies in their business.

“If that happens, this cost reduction can accelerate whose progress,” he said. “Therefore, overall, the market will expand faster and the value of the market will grow faster.”

The Chinese company claims its model can be trained on 2,000 specialized chips compared to an estimated 16,000 for top models.

But not everyone is convinced. Some doubts about some Deepseek’s statements, including technology tycoon Elon Musk.

He answered a post that Deepseek really had about 50,000 NVIDIA chips that were banned from exporting to China, saying: “Clear.”

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

The 40 -year -old man, an electronic information and engineering graduate, also established Deepseek Supporting Defense Fund.

Recently, he was seen at a meeting between industry experts and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.

In an interview in July 2024 with Chinese AcademyLiang said he was surprised by the reaction to the previous version of his AI model.

“We don’t expect the price to be such a sensitive issue,” he said.

“We are simply at our own speed, calculate the cost and set the price accordingly.”