It’s been called ‘ChatCCP’ but DeepSeek was hiding in plain sight 

​How DeepSeek caused a financial market frenzy that changed AI foreverBy business reporters Kate Ainsworth and Rachel ClaytonTopic:Artificial Intelligence1h ago1 hours agoSat 1 Feb 2025 at 7:08pmDeepSeek caused a chain reaction of chaos on financial markets. (Getty Images: SOPA Images)When China’s first foray into artificial intelligence roared into the public domain, it dealt a blow straight to the financial heartland of the United States.Billions of dollars were wiped off Wall Street in less than 24 hours after Chinese startup DeepSeek cast clouds of uncertainty over investors.At the eye of the share market storm was Nvidia, a darling of the New York Stock Exchange whose cutting-edge chips have powered the AI revolution.The storm eased just as quickly as it hit, and the days that followed proved the market ructions were short-lived.What it left behind would form the basis of a new AI climate altogether.From market darling to victim of record fallNvidia’s technological prowess had supercharged the American company and made it one of the world’s three most valuable at the end of 2024.It had spent much of the year comfortably jostling with Microsoft and Apple for the title, and was regularly behind Wall Street’s setting — and re-setting — of record highs.In the eyes of investors, the chipmaker was the quintessential American success story, at the forefront of the next chapter of the technological revolution.Many considered Nvidia the closest stock to resembling a sure thing.But during the Monday trading session on Wall Street, that belief seemed to waver.Nvidia has been one of the strongest performing companies on Wall Street. (Reuters: Andrew Kelly)By the time the closing bell rang less than 7 hours later, Nvidia had lost almost $1 trillion in market value.It even managed to set a record in the process, with a 17 per cent fall in its share price bestowing it the honour of having the biggest loss on a single day in the history of the US stock market.A day later, Nvidia had regained ground. By the end of the week, it was business as usual.But DeepSeek’s arrival had an even deeper impact — and its launch signalled that the global AI race was about to go into overdrive.DeepSeek and the 4-minute mileIt may have only made headlines recently, but the business is the product of years of quiet work behind the scenes.DeepSeek was founded by 40-year-old AI entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng, who was behind the launch of High-Flyer in 2015, a quantitative hedge fund.He has been described by AI expert and University of New South Wales engineering professor Toby Walsh as a “Chinese Sam Altman” — the founder of OpenAI — but without the charisma.High-Flyer had hired young, smart PhD graduates for its algorithmic trading, and after apologising to investors for its underperformance in 2021, Liang seemingly changed tack.He founded DeepSeek in 2023 and his staff pivoted to creating an AI chatbot using chips from US company Nvidia.To do that, however, the company ha