A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app.

Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan as the surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model knocked investors' faith in the profitability of AI and the sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.

The Nasdaq could face market-cap losses of nearly $1 trillion if premarket declines hold into the close of trading.

It has been widely assumed that the United States was the leader in global artificial intelligence (AI) technology by far. Private AI companies, which include OpenAI and xAI, have raised tens of billions of dollars in the past year.