Here is the article:
OpenAI’s Sam Altman described DeepSeek’s new artificial intelligence model as “clearly a great model.” Apple CEO Tim Cook said “innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing,” when asked about the model. Palantir’s Alex Karp emphasized the importance of an “all-country effort” in the field. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella commented on the “real innovations” of the model.
The tech CEOs were discussing China’s DeepSeek, which rose to the top of the charts on Apple’s App Store and remained in the lead spot, ahead of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The model was created for $6 million, a fraction of the cost of similar models in the US.
The timing of the rollout coincided with the start of tech earnings season, with Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple reporting earnings. The event also comes as President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of the US winning in AI, particularly against China.
Some have debated the significance of DeepSeek’s rollout and the financial achievement, with a new report from research firm SemiAnalysis estimating the company’s costs at “well higher than $500 million over the company’s history.”
AI is a significant focus for many companies, particularly in technology, where leaders are spending tens of billions of dollars to develop more powerful models. Industry leaders are highlighting the need to beat China in the development of AI. As Karp of Palantir noted, “we have to acknowledge that, but that also just means we have to run harder, run faster, have an all-country effort.”
Cook of Apple stated that innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing, and that his company’s tight integration of silicon and software will continue to serve it well. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg cautioned that it’s too early to have a strong opinion on the impact of DeepSeek on the trajectory of infrastructure and capex, noting that there are many trends happening at once.
Microsoft’s Nadella said people who want to run DeepSeek R1 will soon be able to on the company’s Copilot+ PCs and on graphics processing units (GPUs) on Windows. He noted that what’s happening with AI is no different than what happened in the regular compute cycle, adding that it’s always about bending the curve and then adding more points to it.