DeepSeek gains business traction despite security risks
US and global firms adopt DeepSeek’s models due to cost savings, even as public sector bans remain in place.
Chinese AI company DeepSeek is gaining traction in global markets despite growing concerns about national security.
While government bans remain in place across several countries, businesses are turning to DeepSeek’s models for low cost and firm performance, often ranking just behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in traffic and market share.
DeepSeek’s appeal lies in its efficiency. With advanced engineering techniques like its ‘mixture-of-experts’ system, the company has reduced computing costs by activating fewer parameters without a noticeable drop in performance.
Training costs have reportedly been as low as $5.6 million — a fraction of what rivals like Anthropic spend. As a result, DeepSeek’s models are now available across major platforms, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and even open-source repositories like GitHub and Hugging Face.
However, the way DeepSeek is accessed matters. While companies can safely self-host the models in private environments, using the mobile app or website means sending data to Chinese servers, a key reason for widespread bans on public-sector use.
Individual consumers often lack the technical control enterprises enjoy, making their data more vulnerable to foreign access.
Despite the political tension, demand continues to grow. US firms are exploring DeepSeek as a cost-saving alternative, and its models are being deployed in industries from telecoms to finance.
Even Perplexity, an American AI firm, has used DeepSeek R1 to power a research tool hosted entirely on Western servers. DeepSeek’s open-source edge and rapid technical progress are helping it close the gap with much larger AI competitors — quietly but significantly.
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