DeepSeek: The AI Chatbot That Took the World by Storm
This week, the AI chatbot shot to the top of the Apple App Store and Google Play charts, making waves across the tech world. What’s even more surprising? DeepSeek isn’t just another chatbot—it’s powered by compute-efficient AI models that have even Wall Street analysts and AI experts questioning whether the U.S. can keep its edge in artificial intelligence. It also raises a big question—will the global demand for AI chips stay strong?
But where did DeepSeek come from? And how did it rise to fame so fast?
DeepSeek’s Unexpected Beginnings
Believe it or not, DeepSeek didn’t start as an AI chatbot project. It all began with High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese hedge fund that uses AI to predict and make trading decisions.
The story goes back to 2015, when AI enthusiast Liang Wenfeng co-founded High-Flyer. As a student at Zhejiang University, Wenfeng was already fascinated by financial markets and AI-driven predictions. By 2019, he turned High-Flyer into a fully-fledged hedge fund, using AI algorithms to make smarter investment moves.
Fast forward to 2023, and High-Flyer decided to take things to the next level. Instead of just using AI for trading, they launched DeepSeek as a dedicated AI research lab. But DeepSeek quickly outgrew its roots, spinning off into a standalone company focused entirely on AI innovation.
DeepSeek’s AI Powerhouse—And Its Challenges
From day one, DeepSeek invested in its own data centers to train AI models, ensuring full control over its technology. But like many AI companies in China, it faced a major hurdle—U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI chips.
To train its latest AI models, DeepSeek had to settle for Nvidia’s H800 chips, a less powerful version of the H100 chips available to U.S. companies. This limitation could have slowed them down—but instead, DeepSeek found a way to optimize performance, making the most out of what they had.
A Young, Ambitious Team Driving Innovation
DeepSeek isn’t just about technology—it’s also about talent. The company is known for aggressively recruiting young PhD-level AI researchers from China’s top universities. But what’s really interesting? They don’t just hire computer science experts.
According to reports, DeepSeek brings in people from diverse backgrounds—historians, linguists, and even artists—to help its AI models understand a wide range of topics better. This approach sets it apart, making its chatbot more versatile, human-like, and culturally aware.
What’s Next for DeepSeek?
DeepSeek has already proven it can compete with the biggest names in AI. But will it be able to maintain its momentum despite hardware restrictions and global competition?
One thing is clear—DeepSeek isn’t just another AI company. It’s a rising force in the AI race, and the world is watching closely.
DeepSeek’s strong models
DeepSeek has been making waves in the AI industry with its powerful models. The company first introduced DeepSeek Coder, DeepSeek LLM, and DeepSeek Chat in November 2023, but it wasn’t until the release of its next-generation DeepSeek-V2 models the following spring that people really started paying attention.
DeepSeek-V2 wasn’t just another AI model—it was fast, efficient, and, most importantly, cost-effective. It could analyze both text and images with impressive accuracy while being far cheaper to run than competing models. Its arrival shook the industry, forcing major Chinese tech giants like ByteDance and Alibaba to slash their model usage prices or even offer some for free just to stay competitive.
Then came DeepSeek-V3 in December 2024, and the company’s reputation soared even higher. According to internal tests, DeepSeek-V3 outperformed both open-source models like Meta’s Llama and closed models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o, which can only be accessed through an API. This was a major statement—DeepSeek was proving itself as a serious contender in the AI space.
One of the most intriguing models in DeepSeek’s lineup is R1, a reasoning-focused AI released in January. Unlike traditional AI models, R1 doesn’t just generate answers—it carefully analyzes them, effectively fact-checking itself. This makes it particularly strong in fields like physics, science, and math, where accuracy is crucial. However, this reasoning ability comes at a cost—it takes longer to process responses, sometimes several seconds or even minutes. But for those who value precision over speed, that tradeoff is well worth it.
Despite its success, DeepSeek faces challenges. Being a Chinese-developed AI, its models must comply with government regulations, ensuring they align with the country’s "core socialist values." This means that, within DeepSeek’s chatbot app, certain topics—like Tiananmen Square or Taiwan’s political status—are strictly off-limits.
DeepSeek’s rise in the AI world is a testament to its innovation and strategic positioning. But like any tech company navigating the global AI race, it must balance ambition with regulation, efficiency with ethics, and speed with accuracy.
DeepSeek’s Disruptive Rise: Innovation or Controversy?
DeepSeek is shaking up the AI industry, but its business model remains a mystery. The company prices its products far below market rates—and in some cases, gives them away for free. Despite attracting significant interest from venture capitalists, DeepSeek has chosen to operate without external funding.
According to DeepSeek, efficiency breakthroughs have allowed it to maintain its competitive pricing. However, not everyone is convinced. Some experts question the numbers DeepSeek has shared, suggesting that the company’s claims may not fully add up.
Regardless, developers have embraced DeepSeek’s models. While not fully open-source in the traditional sense, they are available under permissive licenses that allow for commercial use. On Hugging Face, a leading AI platform, developers have already built over 500 variations of DeepSeek’s R1 model, racking up an astonishing 2.5 million downloads. Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue has acknowledged DeepSeek’s impact, highlighting how quickly its models are being adopted.
But DeepSeek’s rise hasn’t gone unnoticed—or unchallenged. Some see it as a game-changer, upending the AI landscape, while others believe the company is overhyped. One thing is certain: its influence is being felt at the highest levels. In January, DeepSeek’s rapid progress contributed to an 18% drop in Nvidia’s stock price, and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman felt compelled to address its growing presence. By March, the U.S. Commerce Department banned DeepSeek on government devices, citing security concerns.
Meanwhile, major tech giants are keeping a close eye on DeepSeek. Microsoft has added DeepSeek’s models to its Azure AI Foundry, making them available to enterprise customers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, when asked about DeepSeek’s impact, insisted that Meta will continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure, treating it as a strategic priority. However, OpenAI has been more vocal in its criticism, labeling DeepSeek as “state-subsidized” and urging the U.S. government to consider an outright ban.
Despite the controversy, even Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has acknowledged DeepSeek’s innovation, particularly its work on reasoning models, which require significant computational power—something Nvidia benefits from as a chip supplier.
Yet, not everyone is embracing DeepSeek. South Korea, New York State, and several other governments have outright banned its use on official devices. The U.S. appears to be moving in the same direction, with reports suggesting that a broader federal ban is on the horizon.
Where DeepSeek goes from here is uncertain. The company will undoubtedly continue improving its models, but its growing influence is drawing increasing scrutiny from global powers. For now, DeepSeek remains an enigma—either a revolutionary force in AI or a lightning rod for controversy, depending on who you ask.