European shares tumble as China’s budget AI model sparks Tech sector sell-off

European shares slid on Monday as the technology sector joined the retreat in other markets after China’s upgraded low-cost, low-power artificial intelligence (AI) model sparked worries about the profits of rivals and the need for costly tech.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.7% of 0815 GMT. U.S. Nasdaq Composite futures tumbled 3.1%, while S&P 500 futures sank 1%.

Startup DeepSeek has rolled out a free assistant that it says uses lower-cost chips and less data, seemingly challenging a widespread bet in financial markets that AI will drive demand along a supply chain from chipmakers to data centres.