Trump says Chinese AI app DeepSeek should be 'a wakeup call' for US

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the sudden rise of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek should be "a wakeup call" for America’s tech companies.

"The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win," Trump told House Republicans in Miami, Florida.

DeepSeek has raised alarms among Western tech giants, offering a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Backed by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek launched its DeepSeek-R1 large language model (LLM) on Jan. 20.

Unlike ChatGPT’s subscription-based and closed-source platform, priced at $200 per month, DeepSeek-R1 is entirely open-source and free, allowing users to access and operate it on native hardware without limitations.

"I've been reading about China and some of the companies in China, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and much less expensive method, and that's good because you don't have to spend as much money. I view that as a positive, as an asset,” Trump said.

"I view that as a positive because you'll be doing that too, so you won't be spending as much, and you'll get the same result, hopefully.”

The president said the US has the "greatest" scientists in the world, adding Chinese leaders had told him the US has the "most brilliant" scientists.

"When you hear somebody come up with something, we always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive. That could be very much a positive development. So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution," he added.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek triggered a major tech stock selloff Monday with the release of its free AI assistant, which it says uses much less data than its rivals at a fraction of the cost.

The news led to a steep fall in the market value of US chip-maker Nvidia of more than $500 billion.

DeepSeek’s AI model began being used extensively around the world in a short time, leading to deepening selling pressure on technology stocks.

Its AI assistant overtook rivals including OpenAI's ChatGPT to become the most downloaded free app in the US.