Accounts involved in the campaign, including Chinese diplomats, embassies and state media, amplified posts about the launch and promoted the idea that DeepSeek was challenging US dominance in AI, according to online analytics firm Graphika.

The message was spread across platforms like Elon Musk's X, Meta's Facebook and Instagram, as well as Chinese services like Toutiao and Weibo.

1 DeepSeek_ The Chinese AI Startup Disrupting Global Tech Giants Source yahoo.com_.jpg.jpeg
DeepSeek's explosion was fueled by a number of government-linked social media accounts. Photo: Yahoo Tech

“This activity demonstrates how China can quickly mobilize a range of actors to amplify online narratives that assert Beijing is surpassing the US in key areas of geopolitical competition, including the race to develop and deploy the most advanced AI technologies,” said Jack Stubbs, research director at Graphika.

The research firm argues that Chinese state-linked actors, “both overt and covert, are pioneers in using AI to expand their operations in the information environment.”

Accordingly, discussions about DeepSeek's progress compared to ChatGPT began to increase on social network X since January 20 (when the Chinese startup launched its open source models) and achieved significant acceleration starting from the weekend until the end of last week.

As of earlier this week, DeepSeek's free AI assistant had surpassed US-based ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's app store, and global investors dumped US tech stocks, sending chipmaker Nvidia's market value down $593 billion in a single day, setting a record for the biggest single-day loss in Wall Street history.

DeepSeek researchers claim to have developed aspects of the AI ​​model at a much lower cost than their US rivals, raising concerns that US companies that have invested tens of billions of dollars in AI data centers could face a price war with China.

Shares of Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, which operates data centers for the creator of ChatGPT, also plunged as the company reported slower cloud revenue growth than Wall Street expected.

DeepSeek's rise has been hailed by China as a sign that the country is defeating Washington's efforts to rein in the world's second-largest economy's tech industry.

In the US, DeepSeek's achievements have sparked accusations that the company improperly accessed technology from OpenAI and other leaders, although those allegations have yet to be proven.

The U.S. Commerce Department is investigating whether DeepSeek used U.S. chips banned from export to China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

OpenAI Responds to DeepSeek with New, Faster, Cheaper Model OpenAI released a new AI inference model – o3-mini – as the company comes under pressure from DeepSeek, an emerging rival from China.