Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Trump advisor Marc Andreessen described DeepSeek-R1 as "AI's Sputnik moment", a reference to the satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. At the time, the US was considered to have been caught off-guard by their rival's technological achievement.

DeepSeek's AI assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple's iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor. Part of what's worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative AI at a fraction of the cost.