On January 27, the enormous valuations of US tech companies involved with artificial intelligence (AI) were suddenly called into question when it was reported that a previously little-known AI app from China had become the most downloaded free app on the App Store. That meant booting ChatGPT off the top spot, despite a smaller budget and restricted access to the most advanced chips from the likes of Nvidia.
Cue widespread interest in buying DeepSeek shares. But it’s not yet a publicly traded company and is still privately owned, so you can’t invest in DeepSeek just yet. However, the surge in popularity with the release of its supposedly cheap DeepSeek V3 large language model (LLM) has created investing opportunities nonetheless. We’ll pin those down in this guide.
Tech companies whose share prices fell in the sell-off
AI disruptor stocks like DeepSeek
How to invest
- Open a brokerage account. If you don’t have one already, the first step in investing in one of these stocks is to open a brokerage account. Choose a platform that suits your needs, whether it’s one with robust research tools, low fees, or a user-friendly interface.
- Fund your account. Once your account is set up, deposit funds. You can do that via a bank transfer, debit card or any other means allowed by your platform.
- Research and choose your “DeepSeek effect” stocks. Research the best stocks (or funds) for your portfolio, and then search for them on your chosen platform by company name or ticker symbol.
- Buy shares. Once you’ve found the stocks, select the amount you want to invest and create an order to buy shares. And just like that, you’re now officially an investor in the AI sector.
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What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI firm that uses open-source technology to create its LLM. For comparison, ChatGPT is an example of another popular LLM. Open source just means that the coding and programming can be viewed by anyone, including developers and researchers, which helps to add a level of transparency.
The reason DeepSeek has been hitting the headlines and growing in popularity is because its latest LLM DeepSeek V3 has been deemed comparable to ChatGPT in terms of performance. But what’s so interesting is that it was supposedly created at a fraction of the cost, being trained for roughly $6 million — whereas ChatGPT cost upward of $100 million.
Our expert says: Is DeepSeek better than ChatGPT?
“DeepSeek’s V3 LLM isn’t necessarily better than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, reports suggest that it is pretty comparable in terms of performance and speed.
What’s interesting about this, and the reason everyone is surprised, is due to the lower costs involved. Although, it’s worth keeping in mind that these extremely low-cost figures haven’t yet been independently verified.
We’re likely to see OpenAI fight back with a vengeance and it’s going to have to if it wants to justify its high costs if equivalent technology can be created in China for just a sliver of the cost.”
Bottom line
At the moment, you can’t buy shares in DeepSeek or OpenAI. However, the AI tech that’s being released is still likely to have an impact on the stock market and firms linked with any part of the AI ecosystem and supply chain could see periods of volatility as these firms battle it out.
We’re still in the early days for DeepSeek, and it’s hard to gauge how successful the firm will be. But it goes to show that the stock market is very sensitive at the moment, and it could be a sign that we may get some dips and possible buying opportunities over the coming months and years.
All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
