New York: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday commended the DeepSeek R1 AI model, calling it “impressive”. However, Altman stressed that OpenAI believes the key to their success lies in the extensive computing power they employ for their models.
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, caught global attention last month when it revealed that its DeepSeek-V3 model was trained with less than $6 million in computing power, using the lower-capability Nvidia H800 chips. Last week, the company unveiled its R1 model, which is reportedly 20 to 50 times more affordable than OpenAI’s O1 model, depending on the task, according to a post shared on DeepSeek’s official WeChat account.
“DeepSeek’s R1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price,” Altman said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He continued, “But mostly we are excited to continue to execute on our research roadmap and believe more compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission.”
DeepSeek’s breakthrough has raised questions about the strategies of U.S. tech giants, some of which have committed billions of dollars to AI development. The emergence of DeepSeek has led to a sharp decline in shares for major tech companies, including Nvidia. The chipmaker saw a historic one-day loss of $593 billion in market value on Monday, marking the largest single-day loss for any company on Wall Street.
