--- title: "Trump Responds After DeepSeek Humiliates His Splashy AI Announcement" description: "Donald Trump responded to the rapid success of DeepSeek, whose low-cost AI model embarasses the president's behemoth Stargate deal." date: "2025-01-28" modified: "2025-01-28" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-responds-after-deepseek" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "deepseek" - "donald trump" - "the digest" --- # Trump Responds After DeepSeek Humiliates His Splashy AI Announcement ![Donald Trump responded to the rapid success of DeepSeek, whose low-cost AI model embarasses the president's behemoth Stargate deal.]() *\Image: Joe Raedle / Andrew Harnik via Getty / Futurism\* ## Deep Trouble President Donald Trump has responded to the rapid rise of the Chinese startup DeepSeek, whose recently released AI model has him and his Silicon Valley pals [looking like a bunch of chumps](). "The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win," Trump [said Monday at a GOP event in Florida](). It's a relatively measured take from Trump, considering his usual — though [occasionally wavering]() — [hawkishness on China](), complete with a metaphorical stern glance to the domestic tech sector. The Republican president also added that he viewed the model's low-cost as a "positive development." "Instead of spending billions and billions, you'll spend less and you'll come up with hopefully the same solution," Trump said. ## Stars Malign Released last week, DeepSeek's open-source R1 model rivals the West's best at a fraction of the cost. It was developed using older Nvidia AI chips, for purportedly under $6 million. Despite these limitations, R1 matches up to leading chatbots like OpenAI's o1 model, and in certain benchmarks, even surpasses them. For Trump and his tech allies — **t**hemselves often [recent convertees]() to his political enclave — the timing couldn't have been worse. The new administration had just announced its [Stargate deal](), which would raise $500 billion of private capital towards building AI infrastructure in the US. Its backers included OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and Emirati [state-run investment firm MGX](). That staggering sum is emblematic of the outrageous amounts of capital and processing power that the [industry talking heads]() have been [insisting is necessary]() to develop large AI models. Thus far, the preferred way of making AI more powerful has been through scaling, or leveraging more data and adding more AI chips. In other words, making the AI models bigger — which isn't very efficient, money or energy-wise. ## All Caught Up With DeepSeek riposting without anywhere near the same amount of resources, Stargate's half-trillion dollar price tag now looks like a ridiculous monument to the tech industry's arrogance. And generally, the stock market agrees. The buzz stirred by the Chinese AI model wiped out over $1 trillion [from leading US tech stocks](), or about two Stargates worth. Roughly $600 billion of those losses came from [Nvidia](). That said, big names like OpenAI CEO [Sam Altman]() and Microsoft CEO [Satya Nadella]() have tried to keep a cool head amidst the chaos, praising Deepseek's achievements. And Trump's own [AI and crypto czar]() David Sacks [opined on X]() that R1 "shows that the AI race will be very competitive," stressing that the US "can't be complacent." **More on AI:** *[Sam Altman Says OpenAI Is Going to Deliver a Beatdown on DeepSeek]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()