DeepSeek’s launch of its R1 model in late January 2025 triggered a sharp decline in market valuations across the AI value chain, from model developers to infrastructure providers. Investors saw R1, a powerful yet inexpensive challenger to established U.S. AI models, as a threat to the sky-high growth projections that had justified outsized valuations. For those who have been paying attention, however, the arrival of DeepSeek — or something like it — was inevitable.
