How DeepSeek Erased Billions in Market Value
A new AI sent markets tumbling.
On Monday, the stock market tanked, seemingly in reaction to the emergence of DeepSeek, an open source AI model developed in China. Nvidia, the semiconductor giant that has been the largest winner of the AI boom, erased $589 billion in market cap, for the biggest one-day wipeout in US stock-market history. Other chipmakers and big tech giants also swooned. So how did DeepSeek do it? Is it a big threat to the American AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic? What does this say about export restrictions on US chips? On this special emergency session of the podcast, we spoke with Zvi Mowshowitz, an AI expert who authors the excellent Substack, Don't Worry About the Vase. He answered all our questions and more to help understand what it means. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Key insights from the pod:
DeepSeek wasn’t really built for $5 million — 3:08
Why DeepSeek is so transparent — 6:35
Jevons paradox applies to AI — 8:58
Nvidia is still in the driver’s seat — 11:35
Everyone forgot about Google — 12:59
Why Meta should be worried — 14:15
AI is more competitive than previous tech advancement — 17:18