Three days ago, the stock market value of Nvidia, the US manufacturer of advanced chips engineered for AI development, and other artificial intelligence (AI) companies lost about 1 trillion dollars when a Chinese company in the sector, DeepSeek, introduced a similar product to the market, but much more competitive. The “perpetrator” of the project that threatens the dominance of American AI giants was identified in the person of a Chinese man, aged around 40, who goes by the name Liang Wenfeng.
But this topic has been analyzed in other Kathimerini columns by knowledgeable colleagues who are interested in these matters. The issue, politically, is that the measures imposed by the US to block China’s access to the American high-tech AI industry have proven ineffective or simply useless and unnecessary. In addition, profound analyses about China’s level of development have been refuted.
It is not the first time that surprises, sometimes unpleasant ones, have occurred and profound estimates have been flatly refuted. For example, when in August 1955 the USSR announced that it would put a satellite into orbit around the Earth in 1957, Western experts considered the announcement to be baseless propaganda. Despite the predictions of those “experts,” however, the USSR made a successful launch on October 4, 1957. The satellite was put into orbit, emitted a beep from space, and, most importantly, the R-7 Semyorka missile which launched Sputnik, was the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, which had the ability to strike the United States with nuclear weapons.
The space age had begun. In January of the following year, the US launched the Explorer I satellite into orbit. But the Soviets were not about to stop. On November 3, 1957, they sent a new satellite, with a stray dog, Laika, as a passenger. This was followed on April 12, 1961 by the mission of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, who upon returning to Earth declared that he had not met God while in space.
The US response was awe-aspiring when, on July 20, 1969, American astronauts walked on the surface of the moon. Today, President Donald Trump has announced a mission to Mars and called Monday’s stock market drama a “wake-up call” to boost the competitiveness of American businesses. Perhaps rightly so.