5 things to know about Chinese AI startup DeepSeek

The United States Department of Homeland Security ordered government agencies on Monday to stop using artificial intelligence tools from DeepSeek, citing concerns over data being transferred to China.
Here are five things to know about the Chinese AI startup following the new restrictions:
– ‘Sputnik moment’ –
Founded by Liang Wenfeng in the eastern Chinese tech hub Hangzhou, DeepSeek started life in 2023 as a side project of Liang’s data-driven hedge fund that had access to a cache of powerful AI processors made by US chip giant Nvidia.
It gained global attention in January 2025 with the release of its R1 deep-reasoning large language model, which sparked a US tech share sell-off...