NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 27 – Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI assistant became the top-rated free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store on Monday, surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, which its creators claim rivals the most advanced closed-source AI models globally, the app has gained rapid popularity among U.S. users since its release on January 10, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
DeepSeek’s rise challenges long-held assumptions about U.S. dominance in AI and the effectiveness of Washington’s export controls aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced chips for AI development.
Since 2021, the Biden administration has expanded restrictions to prevent China from acquiring high-end Nvidia chips used in AI training. However, DeepSeek researchers previously stated that their model was trained using Nvidia’s H800 chips at a cost of under $6 million—raising questions about the impact of U.S. trade policies.
DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup founded in 2023, remains relatively unknown compared to major Chinese tech firms like Baidu, which pioneered China’s first large-language AI model. While many Chinese firms have since developed AI models, DeepSeek is the first to be recognized by U.S. tech experts as matching or even surpassing top American AI systems.
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