- US stocks erased more than $1 trillion in market cap on Monday amid the DeepSeek-fueled sell-off.
- The Chinese startup debuted an AI model on par with US rivals and developed at a lower cost.
- Tech stocks plunged, with Nvidia losing around $589 billion in market cap.
US stocks plummeted on Monday as traders fled the tech sector and erased more than $1 trillion in market cap amid panic over a new artificial intelligence app from a Chinese startup.
The S&P 500 nearly 1.5% lower, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had shed more 3% by the end of the day.
The worst damage was done to shares of major chip firms. Nvidia plunged almost 17%. The decline erased $589 billion from its market value and marked the worst-ever single-day loss of market cap in history.
The chip giant's stock rout caused it to lose the status as most valuable company in the world, with its Its $2.9 trillion market cap overtaken by Apple, which managed to rise 3% during the day to hit a market cap of $3.45 trillion.
Shares of other chipmakers, including Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, also saw dramatic declines, falling 17% and 13%, respectively.
DeepSeek, a new AI app from a startup in China, roiled stock futures over the weekend after the AI model was said to outperform OpenAI's ChatGPT in several tests. The losses gathered momentum after DeepSeek became the most downloaded app on Apple's App Store in the US on Monday.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. closing bell on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 6,012.28, down 1.46%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 44,713.58, up 0.65% (+289.33 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 19,341.83, down 3.07%
Other Magnificent Seven stocks also posted steep losses. Microsoft dropped 2%, while Alphabet lost 4%.
Meanwhile, Oracle shares dropped nearly 14%, reversing its rally last week after President Trump announced a $500 billion deal involving the software giant to create more AI infrastructure.
SoftBank, which was also part of the deal, fell 8% during trading hours in Tokyo.
"We think investors should take the innovation from China seriously, as it puts into question whether the current pace of capex spend/technology upgrades is necessary. Commentary from US hyperscalers will be key this week to see if they remain aggressive with AI spend," Angelo Zino, a senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, wrote in a note.
"Attempts to limit China's access to US technology, in this case chips and chip equipment, have very likely incentivized China to develop on their own, and become more independent of U.S. capabilities in the process," David Bahnsen, the chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, said. "China may not only go away as a customer, but may become the #1 competitor as well."