DeepSeek’s Success Contrasts With China AI Startups’ Struggles

DeepSeek has shaken up Silicon Valley and Wall Street with its stunning advances in artificial intelligence. But its technological success doesn’t mean China’s AI industry has figured out how to make money.

The rise of DeepSeek contrasts with the struggles of other Chinese competitors, especially the best-known AI unicorns dubbed the “six little dragons.” The six startups—MiniMax, Moonshot AI, Zhipu AI, Stepfun, Baichuan and 01.AI—spearheaded China’s AI push in the past two years by developing their own general-purpose large AI models. But more recently, they have been facing a real test for survival.