KUALA LUMPUR: Nasdaq futures have plunged as the launch of China's DeepSeek AI model last week - a free, open-source artificial intelligence model touted to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT -shook investor confidence in Nvidia's prospects.
Nvidia is seen as having an unassailable lead in the manufacture of chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, but news of a game-changing AI model by DeepSeek - an AI lab funded by Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer - sent the American chip giant's shares falling more than 3% last Friday.
The release of Deepseek's AI model, which it said was developed at a fraction of the cost of AI systems from OpenAI, had investors questioning if there was really a need for high-powered chips to fuel AI development.
Going by the performance of US futures, the fall is set to worsen.
At the time of writing, the Nasdaq mini was down 1.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.4%.
As at Monday, the DeepSeek App has taken the No.1 spot on the app store, across all categories.
Entrepreneur and commentator Arnaud Bertrand noted in a post on social media platform X that "quite literally, China has now officially taken the lead in AI".
Meanwhile, the trading stock of Malaysia's YTL Power International Bhd
could come under pressure as the development casts a shadow over its Johor data centre project.
The US$4.3bil project has been touted as one of the first in the world to house Nvidia chipsets used in AI.
Shares in the company are already under pressure following the announcement of its non-tradeable 1-for-5 bonus warrants, which are seen as inflexible.
The stock lost nearly 11% last Friday, closing at a six-week low of RM3.61.
On Monday, the share continued to fall, paring 16 sen or 4.43% to RM3.45 apiece in the first hour of trading.
