In a move that's shaking up the tech world, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has catapulted its AI Assistant to the top of Apple's App Store in the U.S., surpassing the well-known ChatGPT. 

This rapid rise has happened quickly (it was released on January 10, 2025) and has turned heads and sent waves through global markets. 

Everybody’s freaking out right now, saying hyperbolic statements like the U.S. is falling behind, blah blah blah.

Everybody can stop freaking out. We’re not falling behind. This is a natural technology cycle that has played out through the ages.

The first round of a technology cycle takes a long time and costs the most money, the second round happens faster for less money, the third faster than the second. And so on down the line.

Look at desktop publishing in the 90's and cloud computing in the 2010's as examples technologies that were going to kill jobs and leave people behind.

None of it turned out to be true.

That means that companies like xAI and DeepSeek can improve faster than it took ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

The next round of updates from everyone will happen even faster, and achieve more than the first round.

As for now, DeepSeek’s rise is shaking things up. It’s a reminder that the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on AI innovation, and it’s sparking fresh debates about whether export controls on high-end chips are actually doing their job.

Word is, DeepSeek trained its model using Nvidia’s H800 chips without breaking the bank, which only adds fuel to the fire.

What’s Next
If DeepSeek keeps pushing forward, we could see more powerful—and maybe even more budget-friendly—AI tools hitting the market. This means U.S. based companies too.

For the industry, this is a wake-up call to stay sharp as global competition heats up. And if this sparks more collaboration and innovation across borders, everyday users might be the real winners.