Constellation Research founder R Ray Wang discusses the capabilities of Chinas DeepSeek AI app on Varney & Co.
President Donald Trump and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both joined in on the buzz surrounding Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek, which sent the technology sector into turmoil on Monday following its emergence as a potential rival to leading U.S.-based firms.
The president said the release of the lower-cost, high-performance AI models from a Chinese firm “should be a wake-up call,” while Altman conceded that DeepSeek’s R1 model was “impressive” – and vowed OpenAI will deliver models that are superior.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (R), accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
“Hopefully the release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win, because we have the greatest scientists in the world,” Trump told House Republicans on Monday night in Doral, Florida, during a speech at their annual retreat.
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However, the president said the revelation that DeepSeek has developed a way to produce AI models at a much lower cost than other U.S. models “could be very much a positive development.”
President Donald Trump spoke at the House Republicans’ annual retreat on Monday night. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with hopefully the same solution under the Trump administration,” Trump continued, adding, “We’re going to unleash our tech companies and we’re going to dominate the future like never before.”
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Altman, whose company created the popular ChatGPT models, took to X to give his take, writing, “deepseek’s r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price.”
The OpenAI CEO went on to say, “We will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor!”
The quality of DeepSeek’s models and its reported cost efficiency have changed the narrative that China’s AI firms are trailing their U.S. counterparts, which began after the first Chinese ChatGPT equivalent was released by Baidu.
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The DeepSeek-R1 model was released last week and is 20 to 50 times cheaper to use than OpenAI’s o1 model, depending on the task, according to a post on the company’s official WeChat account.
The R1 model is also open source and available to users for free, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro Plan costs $200 per month.
American tech leaders are taking notice. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed to DeepSeek during an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” saying the company’s models show how competitive the AI race has become, and stressed the importance of the industry having support from the federal government.
“We should want the American model to win,” Zuckerberg told host Joe Rogan.
“I think it’s easy for the government to take for granted that the U.S. will lead on these things,” Zuckerberg said. “But I think it’s a very close competition, and we need the help. We need them to not be a force that’s making it harder for us to do these things.”
FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Reuters contributed to this report.
