Chinese AI Firm DeepSeek Faces Cyberattack, Halts New User Registrations
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has been hit by a significant cyberattack, forcing the company to temporarily suspend new user registrations.
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Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has been hit by a significant cyberattack, forcing the company to temporarily suspend new user registrations. The incident comes as global tech stocks experienced a massive sell-off, shedding hundreds of billions of dollars in value following the revelation of DeepSeek’s potentially groundbreaking AI technology.
DeepSeek’s AI assistant, launched just last week, has quickly risen to become the most popular program on the Apple App Store, surpassing the US-based ChatGPT. The company claims its latest large-language model, powered by the DeepSeek V3 and R1 systems, rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally while being significantly more cost-effective to train and operate.
In a notice posted on its website on Monday, DeepSeek stated, “Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services, we are temporarily limiting registrations to ensure continued service. Existing users can log in as usual.” The company’s website has also experienced intermittent outages, with Reuters reporting the worst disruptions in the past 90 days.
DeepSeek’s success has challenged the US strategy of restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology. The company revealed last month that it trained its latest AI model using Nvidia’s H800 chips, which are not subject to US export bans, at a cost of less than $6 million.
However, skepticism from some US experts about DeepSeek’s claims has contributed to a dramatic market reaction. Nvidia saw its market capitalization plummet by over $600 billion during Monday’s trading, marking the largest single-day loss in history, according to Forbes. Oracle’s shares also dropped, dragging the Nasdaq down by nearly 3% and pushing the S&P 500 toward its worst day in over a month, as reported by AP.
The fallout extended to international markets, with the Amsterdam and Tokyo stock exchanges impacted by losses at Dutch chipmaker ASML and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, respectively. Notably, SoftBank had recently announced a partnership with Oracle and OpenAI, pledging up to $500 billion in investments for AI infrastructure in the US.
The cyberattack on DeepSeek and its subsequent market repercussions highlight the growing tensions in the global AI race, as well as the vulnerabilities faced by tech companies in an increasingly competitive and high-stakes environment.
