China’s DeepSeek chatbot disrupted the artificial intelligence industry and raised concerns about massive investments by US giants, causing Japanese tech companies to plummet Tuesday after a thrashing on Wall Street.
A news that Washington was considering imposing global tariffs on a variety of items stoked new concerns about a trade war and caused the dollar to rise.
As investors followed a rout on Wall Street that saw Nvidia collapse 17%, wiping away more than half a trillion dollars from its market capitalization, Tokyo-listed companies associated with the artificial intelligence sector plummeted for a second day in a row.
The retreat followed DeepSeek’s release of its R1 chatbot, which reportedly demonstrated the ability to match the capabilities of US AI leaders at a fraction of the money spent by US businesses.
