Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries, has voiced strong criticism against the reaction to DeepSeek, labeling it as an overreaction.
What Happened: On Tuesday, Luckey took to X, formerly Twitter, and described the hysteria surrounding DeepSeek, a China-based AI startup, as an “indictment of so many.”
He dismissed the $5 million figure associated with DeepSeek as false.
He said the Chinese hedge fund aims to deter investment in American AI startups and benefit from short positions against U.S. tech giants like Nvidia Corp. NVDA.
DeepSeek is backed by High-Flyer, an $8 billion Chinese quantitative hedge fund co-founded by Liang Wenfeng.
Luckey also accused the fund of attempting to obscure sanction evasion. “America is a fertile bed for psyops like this because our media apparatus hates our technology companies and wants to see President Trump fail.”
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Why It Matters: DeepSeek has said that it developed its low-cost R1 model in just two months with an investment of $5.6 million. This has sparked questions regarding the rationale behind some U.S. tech companies’ commitments to invest billions in AI.
On Monday, Nvidia's stock plummeted 17%, wiping out roughly $600 billion from its market value — marking its largest single-day loss. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 dropped more than 3%, experiencing its steepest decline since Dec. 18.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has raised concerns about whether DeepSeek’s hedge fund partner may have benefited from the tech stock downturn on Monday. “A fortune could have been made.”
The White House announced on Tuesday that the National Security Council is reviewing DeepSeek’s implications, citing potential national security risks.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity AI has launched a self-hosted version of the DeepSeek R1 model.
Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock.com
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