Apple, Meta and Amazon were the only three “magnificent seven” tech stocks to withstand a wide market rout amid panic over Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek’s latest model, which supposedly rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Apple (APPL) closed up 3.18% on Jan. 27, while Meta Platforms (META) gained 1.91%. Amazon also just crept over the line, closing up 0.24% on the day.
Meanwhile, shares in chip maker Nvidia Corp (NVDA) closed down nearly 17% on Jan. 27, wiping out almost $600 billion in value — the largest one-day value drop in US stock market history.
Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc (GOOG), were also hit hard, falling 4%, while Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and Tesla Inc (TSLA) fell 2.14% and 2.32%, respectively, according to TradingView.
Stock heatmap of the largest US equities. Source: TradingView
Bitcoin (BTC) also dropped 3.6% to a low of $98,930 on Jan. 27, while the broader crypto market had fallen 2% over the last 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows. BTC has since recovered to around $101,500.
DeepSeek’s latest AI model R-1 was behind the tech stock drop after it was found to complete tasks in maths, coding and natural language reasoning as well as or better than models from market leader OpenAI — all while apparently being made at a fraction of the cost.
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen described DeepSeek’s R-1 launch as “AI's Sputnik moment” — referencing the first-ever satellite put in orbit by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, which accelerated the space race.
Source: Rowan Cheung
DeepSeek claimed its AI chatbot was built with $6 million in funding, contrasting massively with the US private $500 billion AI infrastructure investment announced last week by President Donald Trump.
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However, some investment analysts, including Investing.com’s Jesse Cohen remain skeptical over the $6 million figure.
Others in the AI industry praised DeepSeek for adopting an open-source model at a time when many of the most notable AI chatbots are closed-sourced.
Source: Marc Andreessen
Some AI platforms, like the Erik Voorhees-founded Venice AI, have already integrated DeepSeek’s latest model.
DeepSeek, however, said on Jan. 27 that it would temporarily limit registrations claiming there were large-scale malicious attacks on its software.
DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng in the southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in May 2023.
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