News from China upset U.S. markets Monday and disrupted the frenzy that had built up around artificial intelligence.
A company called DeepSeek said it had developed a large language model that can compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek had already hit the top of the chart for free apps on Apple’s App Store by Monday morning, and analysts said such a feat would be particularly impressive given how the U.S. government has restricted Chinese access to top AI chips.
Nvidia, Broadcom and Google’s parent company Alphabet were among the high-flying stocks that fell to earth, at least for now. The noise in the tech sector obscured some solid gains in other parts of the market.
Here’s a look at DeepSeek’s impact on the financial markets, by the numbers:
5.6%
Monday’s decline in the S&P 500 tech sector, the biggest drop in the index since September 2020. Nvidia was one of eight stocks in the tech sector to post double-digit losses on the day. The decline for the index would have been worse if not for a gain of more than 3% in shares of Apple.
$590 billion
The approximate decline in Nvidia’s market value. That decline is more than the combined market value of home improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe’s. Nvidia still carries a market value of about $2.9 trillion.
$27.6 billion
The drop in Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s net worth after the selloff, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. Ellison’s net worth jumped last week after President Donald Trump said a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank would spend up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to AI. Forbes says Ellison is still worth $200 billion. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, saw his net worth drop $20.8 billion to $103.6 billion.
28.3%
The decline in Vistra Corp., the biggest drop for any stock in the S&P 500. Vistra isn’t a tech company — it’s an independent power producer. Its shares soared last year on expectations that the build out of AI infrastructure in the US. will require enormous amounts of power.