China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot may have rattled US tech giants, but in Europe some industry players see a potential advantage.

As US-based company Nvidia – the world’s leading manufacturer of AI chips – reels from a record-breaking stock drop, European semiconductor firms and AI developers are weighing what the disruption could mean for them.

Philippe Notton, CEO of SiPearl, a European company developing processors for supercomputers, told RFI that DeepSeek’s ability to develop AI with fewer resources could be a turning point.

“That’s bad news for Nvidia in terms of future sales, because if you can develop some competitive solution with fewer Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), it means that Nvidia will sell fewer chips,” he said.

“All the forecasts predict that the hype on GPUs and Nvidia is collapsing.”

Artificial intelligence may lead humanity to extinction, industry leaders warn

Unexpected crash

DeepSeek’s launch last week sent tech stocks plummeting.

On 27 January, Nvidia, called the “posterchild of America’s AI frenzy” by Bloomberg, lost $589 billion in market value – the biggest market-cap loss for a single stock ever.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 3 percent, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.5 percent.

DeepSeek claims to have developed its model with just €6.23 million, far below its Western competitors.

“It’s good news for the planet because it’s going to use much less energy to build this. It’s good news for Europe because they could do it for a limited budget.”

Read more on RFI English

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