DeepSeek Hit By “Large-Scale” Cyberattack

Chinese AI company DeepSeek reminded Western investors about global competition in the artificial intelligence race, particularly in China, where large language models can be developed and trained at a fraction of the cost incurred by Mag7 companies. This sparked a global selloff across the AI complex as investors worry over “negative capex impact” and ROI concerns over hefty AI investments.

In a separate development, DeepSeek’s API landing page posted this warning around noon: “Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services, registration may be busy. Please wait and try again. Registered users can log in normally. Thank you for your understanding and support.” 

The Hangzhou-based company continued, “To ensure continued service, registration is temporarily limited to +86 phone numbers. Existing users can log in as usual.” 

DeepSeek did not disclose who was behind the “attacks” or where they originated. However, given that hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization were wiped out from Mag7 stocks (-$700bln), plus a massive AI narrative shift, one might reasonably speculate about where the attacks are coming from, directly or indirectly through proxy groups. 

Our forensics analysis of Chinese public records provides a more in-depth view of DeepSeek. 

Business purpose:

Hangzhou Deep Quest Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., with its office address located in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province and a paradise on earth, Room 1201, Building 1, West Huijin International Building, No. 169 North Huancheng Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province (registered address), our company mainly provides: engineering and technical research and experimental development; technical services, technical development, technical consulting, technical exchanges, technology transfer, and technology promotion; software development; computer system services; information system integration services; artificial intelligence application software development; information technology consulting services; electronic product sales; communication equipment sales; instrument sales; data processing services; Internet data services; computer software, hardware and auxiliary equipment retail; artificial intelligence hardware sales; professional design services.

Upstream Ownership (Founder: Liang Wenfeng):

Additional public records data on DeepSeek:

DeepSeek’s training costs for its latest LLM are allegedly around $6 million—far less than the hundreds of billions of dollars Mag7 companies spent.

PitchBook data shows a recent money raise…

Meanwhile, Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told clients: ”Did DeepSeek really build OpenAI for $5 million? Of course not,” adding, “It seems like a stretch to think the innovations being deployed by DeepSeek are completely unknown by the top tier AI researchers at the world’s other numerous AI labs.”

However, if DeepSeek did… 

deepseek better not be the real deal… pic.twitter.com/qv6vtINl2d

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 26, 2025

Latest DeepSeek reporting:

• China’s DeepSeek AI Moves The Capital Of Tech From Palo Alto To Hangzhou

• China’s DeepSeek Bombshell Rocks Trump’s $500BN AI Boondoggle

• Goldman Asks If China’s DeepSeek is AI’s Sputnik Moment

• How Goldman Is Trading The DeepSeek Shock

• ‘Bad Things Can Happen’ – This Chart No Longer Makes Sense If DeepSeek Is The Real Deal

• DeepSeek Pulls Rug Out On Nvidia, ASML

• DeepSeek May Trigger “Negative Capex Impact” As Peak Data Center Occupancy Forecast Faces Revision

. . .