From www.accountingtoday.com: DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, experienced a rapid surge in popularity following the introduction of its R1 model, which was compared favorably to major competitors like OpenAI’s models.

The influx of users strained DeepSeek’s systems, leading the company to limit signups to users with mainland China phone numbers due to what they claimed were malicious attacks.

This sudden interest triggered significant declines in U.S. and European tech stocks, with concerns raised about the potential re-evaluation of AI spending by major companies in response to DeepSeek’s cost-effective offerings.