KUALA LUMPUR: DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup, is not a threat to Malaysia's data centre boom, says Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
He said that new advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) allow for services at a much lower cost and would scale the data centre boom faster.
ALSO READ: DeepSeek model a boon for data centres
"A lot of people are using these services. And if that is the case, then of course there will be an increase in demand," he said during the launch of 5G Advanced here on Tuesday (Feb 4)
Gobin said that it is more important to address how the country can ensure that the policies designed earlier can adapt to these new developments and how this is scaled.
He said aspects like cost and energy consumption needed to be looked into as well.
Since the launch of DeepSeek, Nvidia Corp, a key player in the AIwith its graphics processing units (GPUs), experienced a market capitalisation drop of over US$600bil.
ALSO READ: Govt to study impact of DeepSeek AI platform on Malaysia
With concerns growing regarding its capacity to acquire Nvidia’s GPUs for its data centres, YTL Power shares dropped from a peak of RM4.10 per share on Monday to a trough of RM2.93. It rebounded to close at RM3.11 just before the Chinese New Year break, erasing nearly RM8bil of its market value.
DeepSeek’s AI application has become the most downloaded free app within a week of its release on Apple's app store.
Meanwhile, Gobind said that the government is looking into concerns that other countries have also expressed about data compliance by DeepSeek.
However, he highlighted that with the new developments, technology can be developed at a much cheaper cost.
He said the government is also considering how DeepSeek can impact energy consumption and how the country can benefit from it.
