A startup from Hangzhou has begun to unsettle Wall Street investors. After DeepSeek released its models on January 20, the stock prices of major US tech giants have collectively fallen. AI companies in China and the US have both taken new stances and actions. The response from the primary investment market has been swift, with many investors already on the lookout for new opportunities even before the Chinese New Year holiday ended.
Behind the different behaviours and attitudes lies a complex interplay of capital, technology, talent and market factors. According to interviews and research conducted by Caijing, DeepSeek has brought about two significant shifts in the China-US industrial landscape.
First, it was generally believed that the key breakthroughs in large models were happening in the US, with other countries merely reverse-engineering them. DeepSeek has shattered this stereotype, becoming the first Chinese startup in nearly 20 years to present a revolutionary solution. Second, the global focus of AI competition has previously been on training, with the industry commonly viewing inference as important but a long-term process. DeepSeek has accelerated this timeline.
