SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 1.27.2025
DeepSeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepSeek topples American AI tech stocks causing a meltdown in the financial markets.
When I was growing up the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite and upended America. Which until that time thought of itself as being a leader in outer space technology.
Today’s toppling of AI stocks is the 2025 version of how America on October 5th, 1957 was impacted forever when it learned the Russians jumped ahead in what was then called the “Space race.”
‘The New York Times’ frontpage, 5 October 1957, announcing the launch of “Sputnik I”, the Soviet Union’s first earth satellite.
Now it’s the Chinese and their Entrepreneurship which is causing an uproar in the political and financial markets.
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Wenfeng has suddenly found himself catapulted to the top of the global multi billion dollar AI news cycle
Excerpted from The New York Times 1.27.2025
DeepSeek is “AI’s Sputnik moment,” Marc Andreessen, a tech venture capitalist, posted on social media on Sunday.
How could a company that few people had heard of have such an effect?
Tech stocks tumbled. Giant companies like Meta and Nvidia faced a barrage of questions about their future. Tech executives took to social media to proclaim their fears.
And it was all because of a little-known Chinese artificial intelligence start-up called DeepSeek.
DeepSeek caused waves all over the world on Monday as one of its accomplishments — that it had created a very powerful A.I. model with far less money than many A.I. experts thought possible — raised a host of questions, including whether U.S. companies were even competitive in A.I. anymore.
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