The little-known artificial intelligence firm has emphasized research, even as it emerged as the brainchild of a hedge fund.

A frenzy over an artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek was upending stock markets Monday and fueling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.

China’s DeepSeek surprised the technology world this week by releasing an AI model that almost matched the performance of American rivals while requiring far less computing power. The news sparked a sell-off in U.S. stocks as investors fretted that the need for powerful computers to train and operate AI models may be overblown.