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(Bloomberg) -- As shockwaves from DeepSeek’s cheaper artificial-intelligence model spread around the world, many in China are embracing the homegrown startup as no less than a national breakthrough that has the potential to rewrite history.
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The furor over what prominent figures in tech like Marc Andreessen are calling “AI’s Sputnik moment” began to build in China even before global markets convulsed Monday over the implications of DeepSeek’s feat.
Game Science co-founder Feng Ji wrote on social media platform Weibo that “DeepSeek may be a technology achievement that can change a nation’s fortune.” “So lucky! So happy!” said Feng, who’s also producer of smash-hit game Black Myth: Wukong. “Such a stunning breakthrough comes from a pure Chinese company.”
DeepSeek’s new open-source AI model rivals or outperforms leading US developers, upending many of the assumptions inside Silicon Valley about the economics of building AI and the extent of America’s lead over competitors in China.
Hype over DeepSeek drove a nearly $1 trillion rout in US and European technology stocks as investors questioned the spending plans of some of America’s biggest companies.
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For China, the technology marked a leap forward in its attempts to thrive despite US restrictions on its access to vital components for chips and AI, although Beijing still faces challenges. Its tech champions Huawei Technologies Co. and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. are believed to lag industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s capabilities by several generations.
The cheer that greeted DeepSeek was the culmination of a series of tech triumphs in recent years that have boosted Chinese citizens’ confidence and pride in domestic talent. The latest breakthroughs ranged from Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro phone that used an advanced chip made locally to social media platform Xiaohongshu.
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of China’s state-backed newspaper Global Times, praised DeepSeek for being “the first Chinese startup to have such a profound impact on the expectations of an entire industry.”
‘Question Mark’
The company “shook the myth of America’s invincibility in high tech” and raised an “explosive question mark” over the US model of developing technology with an unparalleled amount of investment, Hu wrote in a Weibo post on Tuesday.