DeepSeek’s AI Model Just Upended the White-Hot US Power Market
The Chinese company is rapidly changing assumptions about individual models’ power needs, but the AI sector’s emissions are still a concern.
A DeepSeek artificial intelligence logo on a laptop.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergIt took just a single day's trading for Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek to upend the US power market’s yearlong hot streak premised on a boom in electricity demand for artificial intelligence.
AI’s energy needs have led companies such as OpenAI, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to seek new sources of power, such as shuttered nuclear plants. It has also complicated their ambitious climate goals. DeepSeek’s model appears to be more efficient and can achieve the same results for a fraction of the energy use, which may mean AI will have a smaller climate impact than thought.