Despite massive investments in the AI industry, the US seems to have a real competitor in this battle, from China. With minimal investment in hardware, the chatbot DeepSeek reached the top spot in the App Store, ahead of ChatGPT, creating a shockwave through Silicon Valley.
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DeepSeek, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed in China to rival ChatGPT, has become the most downloaded app on the App Store after its performance surprised U.S. companies. The Chinese startup appears to be competing on the same level as ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, although development costs were much lower. This has affected the market values of major American AI players, according to Bloomberg reports.
The AI assistant DeepSeek quickly climbed the download charts for iPhone, raising doubts in Silicon Valley about American supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence model behind the application is considered competitive with the latest models of OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. Also, the fact that DeepSeek was trained and developed at much lower costs triggered fluctuations in the Asian supply chain.
Reviews praise the app, comparing it to the premium version of ChatGPT, and users appreciate that DeepSeek provides detailed explanations, which increases confidence in its results.
Personally, I have tested DeepSeek and I can say that there are some differences compared to ChatGPT, the latter offering more relevant results and reliability. However, taking into account that DeepSeek was developed with a much smaller budget than ChatGPT and that it is at its beginning, I can say that it is an application that promises a nice development and that can be a replacement for ChatGPT in the not too distant future.
Related: Login to DeepSeek with your account Apple in the browser
In fact, DeepSeek is also gaining ground in Europe, where it recently ranked #1 in the App Store among device users' preferences. iPhone.

A shockwave through Silicon Valley
According to VentureBeat, AI experts confirm that DeepSeek is truly competitive with the top American models. The open-source availability of DeepSeek-R1, its high performance, and the fact that it appeared “out of nowhere” to compete with previous leaders in generative AI have created shockwaves not only in Silicon Valley but beyond.
Web entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand outlined on Platform X the profound implications of DeepSeek's success:
“We can’t underestimate how much this changes the entire industry. And not just in terms of AI, it’s also a massive indictment of the US’s attempt to stop China’s technological development. Without this pressure, DeepSeek might not have existed (as they say, necessity is the mother of invention).”
DeepSeek is based on software, not hardware. A recipe for future success.
Generative AI models are typically powered by graphics processing units (GPUs) made by Nvidia. Chatbots developed by OpenAI, Google and Anthropic use over half a million such processors. US export restrictions on advanced technology meant that DeepSeek had access to only about 50.000 GPUs, meaning it achieved comparable results using just 10% of the processing power.
According to Wired, this limitation has forced the Chinese company to focus on software optimization. Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney who studies Chinese innovation, explains:
“Unlike many Chinese AI firms that rely heavily on advanced hardware, DeepSeek has focused on optimizing resources through software. This open-source approach, which combines collective expertise and encourages collaborative innovation, has allowed the company to overcome resource constraints and develop cutting-edge technologies, differentiating itself from its more isolated competitors.”
US tech stocks fall
The true impact of DeepSeek is best seen in US financial markets. According to the Financial Times, shares of US tech companies were hit hard. News of DeepSeek's success sent shockwaves through the markets, with Nvidia losing more than $300 billion in its market value, the biggest drop ever for a company, as investors reassessed future investments in AI hardware. Shares of ASML, a European chip maker, also fell 10%, Microsoft lost 6%, and Meta fell 5%. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes also saw significant declines.
In conclusion, DeepSeek's rapid success not only demonstrated China's ability to compete in the field of AI, but also questioned the technological supremacy of the US, provoking global reactions among both investors and experts.