The world's wealthiest individuals lost $108 billion due to a stock market crash triggered by news about DeepSeek.

This is reported by Bloomberg agency.

Billionaires whose wealth is tied to artificial intelligence have suffered the largest losses.

In particular, the net worth of Nvidia founder decreased by $20.1 billion (a drop of 20%), while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison lost $22.6 billion - the highest absolute loss, but this represents only 12% of his capital. Dell founder Michael Dell lost $13 billion, and Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao lost $12.1 billion.

Overall, tech magnates lost $94 billion, which accounts for about 85% of the total decline in the Bloomberg billionaire index. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 3.1%, while the S&P 500 dropped by 1.5%.

The Chinese company DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou, has been developing artificial intelligence models since 2023.

However, it only attracted the attention of Western investors last weekend when its free chatbot application, DeepSeek R1, topped download charts worldwide.

DeepSeek's market entry was a surprise to the industry. The company claimed it spent only $5.6 million on developing its product, challenging Silicon Valley's belief that large investments are necessary to create powerful AI models.

This significantly impacted billionaires tied to the supply chain of Western AI, which has been the main driver of the stock market for the past two years.

Let’s remember:

Shares of U.S. tech companies significantly decreased during pre-market sessions due to the breakthrough of Chinese startup DeepSeek in the field of artificial intelligence.

The Chinese startup DeepSeek, focused on AI development, caused a crash in global tech stocks on Monday, questioning America’s technological dominance.

The AI assistant from the Chinese startup DeepSeek surpassed competitor ChatGPT on Monday, becoming the highest-rated free app available in the Apple App Store in the U.S.

The Chinese tech startup DeepSeek reported that on Monday, January 27, the company was subjected to a cyberattack, preventing users from registering on the site.