The company has restricted new registrations to Chinese phone numbers, effectively barring international users. This move, seemingly aimed at managing a surge in demand, coincides with a banner on the app’s web chat that claims its “online services have faced large-scale malicious attacks.” However, the company has not identified the source of these alleged attacks.

Monday’s outage is the latest in a series of disruptions for DeepSeek, which has recently gained global attention. The app’s AI models, praised for their superior performance, have sparked concerns in Silicon Valley, contributing to a $1 trillion loss in the valuation of major U.S. tech companies. Many see DeepSeek’s rise as a pivotal moment in the global AI race, with Chinese technology emerging as a serious competitor to U.S. dominance.

The Rise of DeepSeek

Launched in 2023 during a surge of interest in AI tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek initially entered a market where China was considered to lag behind the U.S. in AI innovation. However, the startup quickly gained traction by releasing models it claims rival the performance of those from OpenAI and Meta—at a fraction of the cost.

In a recent paper, DeepSeek researchers revealed that their flagship model, DeepSeek-V3, was trained using Nvidia’s H800 chips at a cost of under $6 million. While this claim has been met with skepticism, it has raised questions about the effectiveness of U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced chips. These restrictions aim to limit China’s ability to develop cutting-edge AI technologies.

Since 2021, the Biden administration has tightened export controls on high-performance chips to curb their use in training Chinese AI systems. Yet, DeepSeek’s apparent success with less advanced chips has reignited debates about whether these measures are sufficient to maintain the U.S.’s technological edge.

A Threat to Silicon Valley

DeepSeek’s rapid success has prompted a reevaluation of China’s AI capabilities. Some U.S. tech executives have acknowledged that the app’s performance is comparable to—or even better than—leading U.S. models. This marks a milestone for Chinese AI, as DeepSeek becomes the first model to receive such recognition from global industry leaders.

The app’s success reflects a broader surge in AI development across China. While major companies like Baidu and numerous startups have been racing to create advanced large-language models, DeepSeek has distinguished itself as a standout, challenging long-held perceptions of Chinese innovation.

Despite ongoing technical challenges and claims of cyberattacks, DeepSeek’s meteoric rise has already reshaped the global AI landscape. Its success has intensified concerns about China’s growing influence in the field and raised doubts about the effectiveness of U.S. strategies to maintain its leadership in artificial intelligence.