Elon Musk doubts DeepSeek's AI microchip claims

Elon Musk has publicly expressed skepticism regarding the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, claiming the company is misrepresenting its technological capabilities and the number of Nvidia chips it has accumulated. DeepSeek recently surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the Apple App Store, asserting it trained its AI model using only 2,000 specialized Nvidia chips, compared to the typical requirement of 16,000. Musk's dismissive comments came amid a significant drop in tech stocks, including a 17% decline in Nvidia's shares, as investors reacted to DeepSeek's rapid rise and its implications for the AI landscape. He specifically refuted claims made by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff that DeepSeek's success indicated AI development does not solely rely on expensive GPUs. The situation has triggered broader concerns within the tech sector about competition and innovation in AI, particularly with China's growing influence. Analysts are now left questioning whether this marks the beginning of a new era in AI or simply another hype cycle.