A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app.

Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan as the surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model knocked investors' faith in the profitability of AI and the sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that’s just over a year old, has stirred awe and consternation in Silicon Valley after demonstrating breakthrough artificial intelligence models that offer comparable performance to the world’s best chatbots at seemingly a fraction of the cost.

DeepSeek’s latest models, created by a small company with limited resources, are already beating many of the leading AI models in the United States.