The startup has said its models either match or outperform rivals at a fraction of the cost, challenging the view that AI requires vast investment.

People across China have taken to social media to hail the success of its homegrown tech startup DeepSeek and its founder, after the company unveiled its newest artificial intelligence model, sending shock waves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Chinese tech company Alibaba released a new version of the Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that surpasses DeepSeek's latest model.

Deepseek collects similar data to American-based AI models, but Chinese laws could make that data more accessible to the government.

Social media exploded in a celebration after the news that a Chinese start-up had made an artificial intelligence tool that was more efficient than any in the United States.