DeepSeek has launched an AI model that was reportedly developed with significantly less computational power than traditional methods. Shares of Nvidia are under pressure amid concerns that DeepSeek's methods may undermine demand for its high-performance GPUs.

Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, known for co-writing Mosaic, one of the world’s first web browsers, wrote Sunday on X that “DeepSeek R1 is AI’s Sputnik moment,” likening it to the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and the event that forced the U.S. to realize that its technological abilities were not unassailable.

The excitement around DeepSeek is giving way to scrutiny, with questions emerging about how its AI models were built and their broader impact.

Stocks rose Friday as Apple led a broad rally following a strong investor reaction to its quarterly earnings report and the market closes out a whirlwind week highlighted by Nvidia’s record-breaking losses in reaction to China’s DeepSeek cheaper AI model and a flurry of earnings reports.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) closed ~5% lower this week to end January with an ~11% slide after Chinese startup DeepSeek’s (DEEPSEEK) low-cost AI model wiped off more than $500B in market capitalization from the Santa Clara,