DeepSeek spooked US markets on news that the model’s developers were able to produce a worthy competitor to American AI firms like OpenAI at a fraction of the cost. The firm claims it was able to develop its AI model on a shoestring budget of just under $6 million using less advanced hardware from semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia.

Bitcoin on Monday fell below its $100,000 milestone for the first time in a week, as Chinese startup DeepSeek raised prospect of cheaper artificial intelligence models, sparking a tech selloff and weighing on broader investor sentiment.