China’s homegrown open-source artificial intelligence model DeepSeek topped app charts in the United States and Europe on Monday, beating out U.S.-based rival ChatGPT for the most popular free app on Apple’s App Store, in what some commentators saw as a potential challenge to American dominance in the sector.
The app’s emergence has roiled financial markets, hitting tech shares and causing the Nasdaq to fall more than 2% in Monday trading. It comes after OpenAI, which is behind the generative AI service ChatGPT, suspended services to China, Hong Kong and Macau last July amid ongoing technology wars between the United States and China.