DeepSeek: Has China won ‘AI war’ against the US or just the first battle?

DeepSeek, described by some as the “biggest dark horse” in the open-source large language model (LLM) space, is being hailed within China as Beijing’s secret weapon in the artificial intelligence (AI) war with the United States (US). But does it ensure Beijing’s victory, or is this just the opening battle? Let’s explore what experts have to say.

The Hangzhou-based company has shocked Wall Street and Silicon Valley by creating AI models at a fraction of the cost incurred by OpenAI and Meta Platforms. This prompted US President Donald Trump to describe the achievement as a “wake-up call” for the US tech industry.