DeepSeek was started by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng in 2021, when he started buying thousands of Nvidia graphic processing units for what was then just an AI side project while running his trading fund High-Flyer.

The programme has shaken up the tech industry and hit US titans, including Nvidia and Meta, which have spent vast sums of cash to get ahead in the fast-developing AI sector

The Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek became the most downloaded free app in the U.S. on Apple’s app store and its low cost claims are putting the pressure on major American tech companies.