Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan on Monday as surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model wobbled investors' faith in the profitability of AI and the sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that’s just over a year old, has stirred awe and consternation in Silicon Valley after demonstrating breakthrough artificial intelligence models that offer comparable performance to the world’s best chatbots at seemingly a fraction of the cost.

DeepSeek topped the Apple App Store over the weekend, and R1 had already cracked the top 10 of the UC Berkeley leader board Chatbot Arena, a ranking of the top-performing AI assis

Technology shares around the world slid on Monday as a surge in popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model shook investors' faith in the AI sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.