Donald Trump has described DeepSeek’s emergence as a “wake-up call” for American companies following its role in triggering a nearly $1 trillion decline in the stock market.
The President welcomed the arrival of the Chinese AI start-up, labelling it as “positive” and commending Chinese companies for developing a more affordable and faster artificial intelligence method.
In Florida, Trump stated, “The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.”
On Monday, Wall Street’s tech-centric Nasdaq Composite fell by over 3%, driven by concerns that the substantial investments in AI by Silicon Valley firms—endorsed by Trump—might not deliver profitable returns for investors.
US chipmaker Nvidia, a leading player in the AI boom, experienced the largest stock market decline in history on Monday, with its shares dropping by 18%, resulting in a loss of more than $600 billion (£480 billion) in valuation.
Trump added, “I’ve been reading about China and some of the companies there, with one in particular developing a faster and much less expensive method of AI, which is good because it reduces costs. I view that as a positive, as an asset.”
The President also mentioned that Chinese leaders had acknowledged that the United States has the world’s most brilliant scientists. He suggested that if Chinese industry can produce more affordable AI technology, US companies would follow suit.
He concluded, “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. Instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”
