As China's DeepSeek - a relatively recent entrant in a crowded field of companies producing artificial intelligence (AI) models - threatens the dominance of the United States in the nascent but highly competitive sector,

A company called DeepSeek said it had developed a large language model that can compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost.

Beijing’s growing clout in the artificial intelligence space has sparked a wave of optimism toward Chinese tech shares, with a gauge approaching a technical bull market and brokers issuing upbeat calls.

The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 2.5% on Friday, with a total increase of more than 20% since January. It appears that DeepSeek’s hype has erased concerns of trade wars among Chinese investors, due to which China’s tech stocks in Hong Kong continue to surge.