During Trump's inauguration, he lined the first row with the tech billionaires and announced a US$500b AI infrastructure project called Stargate. This project lasted one day when China released the DeepSeek app that cost US$5.5m, yes millions not billions, to develop. This new app makes a mockery of all the billion dollar American AI apps and the multi million dollar salaries of the CEOs of these companies.
China is telling Trump and the Americans that AI apps could be developed very cheaply and Trump needs not waste US$500b to build the infrastructure. At most 10% or less would do the job. Trump should therefore return the script to Hollywood, oops to the tech billionaire with vested interest in spending big money.
For the last few years. the tech CEOs have been playing a game of building a very expensive wall using the most expensive Nvidia chips around the AI industry. They have created a myth that only with plenty of expensive and advanced chips could one succeed in developing high performance AI apps like OpenAI, ChatGPT and so on. It was a lie that they created to con and deter other companies and developers from entering the industry. The multi billion dollar wall is their barrier to entry into the game, keeping small and financially weak participants out of the game. This is how they want to dominate and monopolize the industry for themselves. The hype was to throw in billions after billions to frighten off aspiring developers and companies. Another way of looking at it is that they did not have a clue of what AI is all about, thinking that it is so complex and only billions of dollars can make it work.
DeepSeek called their bluff. It required only a fraction of the billions to develop a comparable app that is just as good and better for the mass market. And DeepSeek even make its app available for free, open source, to undercut what the tech giants were trying to do to monopolise the industry. All the aspiring developers and companies are rushing in to develop their own apps with cheaper and less advanced chips like DeepSeek. The game is now open to all and sundry, and DeepSeek is showing them how to do it.
With one stroke, the lies of the big tech CEOs were exposed. They might be able to con Trump but not the tech geeks. Now they have nowhere to hide and looking not only stupid but have to answer for the billions they have spent on something that could be so cheap. Trump would have to revise his US$500b budget or he would look foolish. No one would give him that kind of money when the truth is out. Trump must be furious. How dare the tech CEOs lied to him and made a fool of him. US$500b is now looking so ridiculous to talk about. His Stargate should be called Stardust.