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Big Tech brushes off DeepSeek

18 0
31.01.2025
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The Big Story

Big Tech unfazed by DeepSeek's rise

Leaders of major U.S. tech companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) are brushing off a popular new model from Chinese startup DeepSeek, despite fears it could upend the industry.

© AP Photo/Andy Wong

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have all appeared largely unconcerned about the new AI model in recent days, even after it sent tech stocks tumbling earlier this week.

DeepSeek claims its new R1 model performs on par with OpenAI and cost just $5.6 million to train — a measly sum compared to the billions of dollars that American tech firms have spent building out infrastructure to develop AI.

While Altman acknowledged Thursday that DeepSeek “did a couple of really nice things,” he downplayed its overall impact, calling it “wildly overstated.”

“This is a model at a capability level that we had quite some time ago,” he said during an event in Washington, D.C. “We’ve got a sense of what it takes to run a cost-efficient model.”

During Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Zuckerberg voiced confidence in his company’s plans to continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure in the wake of DeepSeek’s emergence.

Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, announced last week that it plans to spend between $60 billion and $65 billion in 2025 on capital expenditures as it focuses on AI.

“It’s probably too early to really have a strong opinion on what this means for the trajectory around infrastructure and capex and things like that,” Zuckerberg said. “There are a bunch of trends that are happening here all at once.”

Microsoft’s Nadella also struck a positive tone when discussing DeepSeek during the firm’s earnings call Wednesday. His company announced plans earlier this month to spend $80 billion building out data centers in 2025.

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

 

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OpenAI’s Sam Altman downplays impact of DeepSeek: ‘Wildly overstated’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman downplayed the significance of a new artificial intelligence (AI) model released by Chinese startup DeepSeek on Thursday, saying it did a “couple of nice things” but has been “wildly overstated.” DeepSeek’s R1 model, launched last week, has shaken up the American AI industry. The startup has claimed it cost just $5.6 million to train the model with a couple thousand reduced-capability chips, raising questions …


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