On the eve of the Spring Festival, Chinese AI company DeepSeek released its open-source model, DeepSeek-R1, which achieved performance close to that of the GPT-01 model developed by the U.S.-based OpenAI, but at a much lower cost. Within just a few days, DeepSeek topped the free charts in both the Chinese and U.S. Apple App Stores. Tech giants, including Amazon and Microsoft, have announced their integration with the DeepSeek model. U.S. President Donald Trump referred to DeepSeek as a "wake-up call" for the American AI industry. Regarding DeepSeek's sudden rise, Western media speculated on how this was achieved despite the U.S.'s strict restrictions on chip exports to China. At the same time, they portrayed it as an "AI Sputnik moment"—implying its significance was comparable to the shock the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial satellite had on the U.S. during the Cold War. The Guardian in the UK stated that DeepSeek is not the only Chinese company innovating despite the U.S. preventing advanced technology products from reaching China. Matt Sheehan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, remarked: "If the U.S. government thinks all it needs to do is defeat DeepSeek, they will be in for a big surprise."
"This is a lesson that the whole world, especially the United States, needs to learn."
On the 3rd of February local time, China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Fu Cong, held a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York. When asked about the recently globally watched DeepSeek model and Sino-U.S. cooperation in artificial intelligence, Fu emphasized, "Never underestimate the intelligence of Chinese researchers. The global stir caused by DeepSeek and the anxiety and panic from some people show that technology suppression and restrictions do not work. This is a lesson that the whole world, especially the United States, needs to learn."
Fu also asked, "From Huawei to TikTok, and now DeepSeek, how many more things does the U.S. want to ban?" He stated, "We don't need more bans. As the two leading countries in artificial intelligence today, China and the U.S. cannot afford not to cooperate. Only through joint development can we bridge the digital and intelligent divide, especially to help the global South equally benefit from AI development."
"DeepSeek has become one of the most downloaded applications in the world, but some governments have expressed concerns about it." According to the European News Television on the 3rd of February, Texas became the first U.S. state to ban the use of DeepSeek on government-issued devices. However, this ban soon sparked opposition from many American internet users. One U.S. internet user from Texas stated that DeepSeek is currently the best AI in the world, and the state's ban is ignorant and short-sighted.
According to reports from AFP and Bloomberg, U.S. President Donald Trump, during a meeting with House Republicans in Florida on January 27, said, "I hope the DeepSeek AI released by Chinese companies serves as a wake-up call for our industry, reminding us that we need to fully engage in competition." He described the market disruption caused by DeepSeek as "positive" for Silicon Valley because it forces Silicon Valley to innovate at a lower cost. "Compared to spending billions of dollars, you will spend much less but expect the same solution."
Altman: DeepSeek is impressive
U.S. CNBC reported that the success of DeepSeek comes despite the strict semiconductor restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on China, which have prevented China from accessing the most powerful chips, such as Nvidia's H100. China's latest progress suggests that DeepSeek has either found ways to bypass relevant regulations or that U.S. export controls have not had the intended limiting effect. Bloomberg recently cited insiders saying that Trump administration officials are studying expanding the sales restrictions to include Nvidia's "special" AI chips, H20, for China.
In contrast, several overseas tech giants have shown an open attitude toward DeepSeek, with many announcing they will integrate DeepSeek models. According to the South China Morning Post on January 30, Nvidia announced on its official website that the DeepSeek-R1 model will be available as a preview for NVIDIA NIM microservices, describing the model as offering "state-of-the-art reasoning capabilities," "high inference efficiency," and "leading accuracy" for tasks requiring logical reasoning, mathematics, coding, and language understanding.
OpenAI, which once threatened to sue DeepSeek, has also changed its stance. According to Deutsche Welle, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, stated on the 3rd of February in Tokyo that OpenAI has no plans to sue DeepSeek, "The company will continue to create excellent products and lead the world in model capabilities. I think this will be great." Altman also praised DeepSeek, saying, "It is undoubtedly an impressive model," and expressed his excitement about having a new competitor.
Reports state that OpenAI announced on January 29 that there is evidence suggesting DeepSeek used OpenAI's proprietary models to train its own, hinting that this could violate OpenAI's terms of service, but no further evidence was presented.
“Perhaps this is not the last time China's innovation will amaze the world.”
According to a Reuters report on February 3, the emergence of DeepSeek is reshaping the AI landscape, enabling companies to access this technology at a very low cost. It could also push other AI companies to improve their models and reduce prices. Analysts at Bernstein Research in the U.S. estimate that DeepSeek's pricing is only about 1/40 to 1/20 of OpenAI’s comparable models. "I think DeepSeek represents a huge opportunity for companies like ours," said Ulrik, CEO of Danish Empatik AI. "It shows that we can achieve our vision without a huge budget."
"This is a wake-up call, where bigger is not always better," said Fabrizio del Maefao, CEO of Dutch AI startup Axelera AI, to Reuters. "By making models more accessible and lowering the overall holding cost and barriers to building innovative technologies, this could serve as a catalyst for the entire industry." Sina Regal, Chief Business Officer at British AI company NetMind.AI, said, "This marks a significant advancement in the democratization of AI and fair competition with large tech companies."
According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, industry insiders said that DeepSeek's emergence has boosted the morale of Chinese researchers and tech companies and changed economists’ and investors' perceptions of China’s innovation capacity, proving that China’s long-term efforts to nurture local talent and technology are correct.
"Why do we still underestimate China?" Germany's Die Zeit pointed out on February 3 that this is not the first time China’s high-tech industry has conquered the world with an innovative product—think of TikTok's global success. Anyone who has visited China in the past decade cannot fail to notice that almost every aspect of daily life in China is now digitized, often to a degree that surprises Europeans. Does the surprise over DeepSeek's success reflect more our views on China than China itself? This may not be the last time China's sudden innovation will amaze the world.
