DeepSeek, a generative AI foundation model in China, became the highest-rated free app in Apple (AAPL.US)      ’s US App Store, exerting pressure on global technology stocks. In the European morning session, the US Nasdaq 100 futures fell 2.6%, and S&P 500 futures sank 1.4%. Nvidia (NVDA.US)      slid about 7% in the German stock market, while Amazon (AMZN.US)      , Tesla (TSLA.US)      and Meta (META.US)      also dived more than 2%.

In Japan, Advantest, a supplier to Nvidia, and SoftBank, which is involved in the Stargate AI infrastructure project in the US, tumbled more than 8% each, while Tokyo Electron, a chip equipment manufacturer, plunged 5%. Malaysian utility YTL Power also cratered 7% in the Kuala Lumpur stock market. The Taiwan and South Korean stock markets, where TSMC and SK Hynix are listed, were closed for the holiday.

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DeepSeek launched a free assistant that uses lower-cost chips and data, challenging the market logic that AI will drive the supply chain for chips and data centers. DeepSeek researchers revealed in an article last month that the DeepSeek-V3 model launched on 10 January was trained using an Nvidia H800 chip at a cost of less than US$6 million.

The market questioned the AI capex of big tech firms, and even worried that the view of the US being a global leader in cutting-edge technology will change, Reuters quoted analysts as saying.
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