US president Trump applauds DeepSeek AI chatbot following stock market tumble

US President Donald Trump praised the new AI chatbot released by Chinese company DeepSeek, which made tech stocks tumble on Monday.

"I view that as a positive, as an asset. So, I really think if it's, if it's fact and if it's true and nobody really knows if it is, but I view that as a positive because you'll be doing that too. So you won't be spending as much and you'll get the same result, hopefully," he said, while speaking at a Republican policy retreat in Florida.

DeepSeek says its chatbot uses less data and is cheaper than US equivalents, while offering the same quality.

Nvidia, an AI chipmaking giant, lost a sixth of its value and shares of other tech companies like Google and Microsoft likewise took a hit.

The S&P 500 fell 1.6% in early trading Monday. Big Tech stocks that have been the market’s biggest stars took the heaviest losses, with Nvidia down 11.2%, and they dragged the Nasdaq composite down 2.7%.

The DeepSeek chatbot had overtaken US rival ChatGPT in downloads on the Apple IPhone store by Monday.

"The release of the DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake up call for our industry in that we need to be laser focused on competing to win," the US president added.