DeepSeek accelerates launch of new AI model after market disruption

Last month, the Chinese startup triggered a sell-off of more than $1 trillion in global stock markets with a low-priced artificial intelligence reasoning model that outperformed many Western rivals.

The Hangzhou-based firm is now accelerating the launch of the successor to January’s R1 model, three people familiar with the company told Reuters.

DeepSeek had planned to launch R2 in early May but now wants to get it out as early as possible, two of the people said.

The company says it hopes the new model will produce better coding and be able to reason in languages other than English. Details of the accelerated timeline for R2’s release were not previously reported.

DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Rivals are still digesting the fallout from R1, which was built with less powerful Nvidia chips but can compete with those developed by US tech giants at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.

“The launch of DeepSeek’s R2 could be a pivotal moment in the AI industry,” said Vijayasimha Alilughatta, chief operating officer at Indian technology services provider Zensar. DeepSeek’s success in creating cost-effective AI models “will likely encourage companies worldwide to accelerate their own efforts… breaking the stranglehold of a few dominant players in the space,” he added.

R2 is likely to worry the US government, which has set AI leadership as a national priority. R2’s launch could further galvanize Chinese officials and companies that say they have begun to integrate DeepSeek models into their products.