What is DeepSeek and why is it disrupting the AI sector?

The Chinese start-up says its latest AI model is on a par or better than industry-leading models, such as ChatGPT, in the United States at a fraction of the cost

DeepSeek's AI Assistant, powered by DeepSeek-V3, has overtaken rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple's App Store in the United States.

Chinese start-up DeepSeek's launch of its latest AI models, which it says are on a par or better than industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, is threatening to upset the technology world order.

The company has attracted attention in global AI circles after writing in a paper last month that the training of DeepSeek-V3 required less than $6m (€5.7m) worth of computing power from Nvidia H800 chips.