The DeepSeek is not just another AI tool (Artificial Intelligence), or so claim its Chinese creators who launched it to the world a week ago. The new Chinese artificial intelligence in a matter of hours has not only managed to create a sensation with its technical features, but is rocking the American stock market with the little blue whale that is its logo.

The DeepSeek which is currently by far the number one app in downloads and searches in the Apple Store gives users all the features and tools that the equivalent American Open AI tool gives and most importantly at a much lower cost to the users and to the creators themselves.

Who owns DeepSeek?

The company that created this tool was created in 2023 by a startup company whose founder is Liang Wenfeng who also owns 50% of the hedge fund High Flyer. The company claims that the cost of building this particular tool is some tens of millions of dollars much less than what was required for its American competitor, Open AI’s Chat GPT.

The blue whale and the “fallout” in the US stock market

The structural technological difference for DeepSeek over its competitors is that it needs far fewer advanced chips to work than all the AI tools on the market. Based on data from users its operation is even at the same or better levels than all its competitors who spend billions on infrastructure and technology models. The leaders in the industry today, in the West, have spent several billions with Mark Zuckerberg just last week announcing $65 billion investment in this sector alone.

The launch of the app combined with the fact that a Chinese startup rather than a giant is behind the venture has brought significant losses in US markets especially in tech indices and large US companies. Analysts point out that the little blue Chinese whale is responsible for the over 500-point losses on the Nasdaq – an index that is mainly technology-oriented – but also for the 12% drop in the share price of giant Nvidia one of the few global companies valued in the trillions (specifically 3 trillion).

The same financial circles underline that the big question today for investors is how far ahead China ultimately is in the artificial intelligence sector and, more importantly, in how long the billions of dollars of investment announced by both the White House and the country’s tech firms will start to pay off.

It’s also worth noting that the microchip war that former President Joe Biden has openly declared since the beginning of his tenure in China is proving in practice that it has not deterred Beijing from both accessing precious earths and producing advanced technology products.