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DeepSeek R1, which was only eight days old, became the most popular AI term in the world on January 28. Google Trends 24 hours.
The term surpassed other well-known AI terms like ChatGPT, Llama and Gemini. This caused unprecedented volatility on the stock markets.
The sudden rise in stock prices sent shockwaves throughout the stock markets. This was especially true for major companies such as Nvidia and ASML which saw significant drops. Fear among investors about DeepSeek’s disruptive potential led to massive selling, which resulted in billions of dollars lost across different sectors in one trading day. Nvidia suffered the biggest loss, with a share price drop of $600 billion.
DeepSeek is now second, but still popular
DeepSeek R1 has dropped to second place behind ChatGPT on many territories. However, it remains the top app in Russia and China.
Deepseek is still growing in popularity worldwide. According to Similarweb within a few short days, DeepSeek’s global daily visits doubled from 6.2 to 12.4 million, while Google Play Store downloads are now. Over 10 million
DeepSeek R1 is popular not only for its performance, but also because of its low development costs. Its US counterparts Nvidia and OpenAI spent billions on theirs.
What is more striking is that it often outperforms ChatGPT and challenges the status quo of the AI tech industry.
However, as DeepSeek grows in popularity, so does its problems. Several countries have taken major steps to restrict or even ban its use citing concerns about data privacy and national safety.
Taiwan has banned the use of DeepSeek by government agencies and critical infrastructure as of February 2025. Italy’s Data Protection Authority blocked DeepSeek in mobile app stores. The U.S. Navy also banned its personnel from using it.
According to reports, other countries, such as South Korea, Ireland France, Australia, and the Netherlands, are also considering further actions.
DeepSeek, the race to surpass the human intelligence
Efosa is a technology writer who has been writing for more than 7 years. Initially driven by curiosity, he now writes with a passion for the subject. He has a PhD and a Master’s degree in sciences. This gave him a solid foundation for analytical thinking. Efosa has a keen interest for technology policy. He is particularly interested in the intersection between privacy, security and politics. His research focuses on how technological advancements affect regulatory frameworks and social norms, especially in regards to data protection and cybersecurity. In addition to privacy and technology policies, he will also be focusing on B2B products. Efosa can be contacted at this email: [email protected]
