WHAT IS DEEPSEEK, THE CHINESE AI COMPANY UPENDING THE STOCK MARKET?

A frenzy over an artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek was upending stock markets Monday and fueling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China in developing Al technology.

DeepSeek's Al assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple's iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor. Part of what's worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative Al at a fraction of the cost.

That, if true, calls into question the huge amounts of money U.S. tech companies say they plan to spend on the data centers and computer chips needed to power further Al advancements.

But hype and misconceptions about DeepSeek's technological advancements also sowed confusion.

“The models they built are fantastic, but they aren’t miracles either,” said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who follows the semiconductor industry and was one of several stock analysts describing Wall Street’s reaction as overblown.

“They’re not using any innovations that are unknown or secret or anything like that,” Rasgon said. “These are things that everybody’s experimenting with.”

WHAT IS DEEPSEEK?