People still shiver when they remember the dot-com bubble of the 2000s in America. The situation of the technology industry changed that year, when the 2008 financial crisis came, causing hundreds of companies to shut down and millions of jobs were lost.
The $1 Trillion Bloodbath in the US Tech Market
But all that is now child’s play if you look at the tech storm of 2025 US tech stocks had to bear a loss of $1 trillion in just one day Nvidia, the tech king of America, that makes Al chips, lost $600 billion in hours. No other company has suffered so much in the history of America to make sense of $600 billion, the valuation of Reliance Industries is estimated to be $200 billion and the culprits of this bloodshed are a small Chinese company and some new engineers who have released the DeepSeek R1 model.
A model of such unique and efficient artificial intelligence has brought a new turn in the world of Al in a few days. And has destroyed the Silicon Valley in America.
The problem is for the entire world as China made it clear that they want to become the world leader in science, technology, and trade. China is trying to equalize the US in every department and as DeepSeek has shown, in some places has gone beyond the US in cutting-edge technology.
In America, this danger is already being recognized and China is trying to be stopped. America is trying to keep its lead and stop China but in Africa, if there is any action of China in Africa, we will become silent. In the government, in all media outlets all go into a strange silence.
Not only in Africa alone other Asian countries also support China closely for example the world’s largest dam has decided to be built on the Indian border, and there is big silence over that region. China, which we used to mock for cheap unreliable products, has become so much better than us. It is equal to the US. How did a restrictive controlled communist government gain such expertise in cutting-edge technology like Al? And are we now in danger of this hatred, us vs them, that we will rise above politics and work for the country? Especially when the economic crisis, unemployment, and inflation are knocking at our door.
What is DeepSeek R1?
DeepSeek is a product of a small upcoming Chinese tech company. It has not been two years since the company’s founding. It is their Al model. This AI model stands in contrast to the latest models from OpenAI and Meta across many parameters. In some aspects, it even outperforms them. DeepSeek has trained its latest R1 model on a budget of only $5.6 million. Training a model requires immense effort and processing power due to the vast amount of information involved.
Some analysts estimate that this is 100 times less than the training costs of US tech giants for regular users, DeepSeek’s R1 model is free which means it will be adopted very soon. Premium plans for OpenAI’s ChatGPT are expensive, requiring significant computational resources and high token costs. As a result, large firms primarily use it for corporate applications. In comparison, DeepSeek R1 is 30 times cheaper than ChatGPT.
China’s Technological Rise: A Global Shift
Remember, this is the same China where the US has imposed computing chip export restrictions for years so that it can’t compete with the Al race anywhere. But here, a small Chinese company used old outdated chips to defeat the US tech giants and it’s not like they have copied some open Al or meta and made a cheap version of Al.
They have reimagined Al. Let me explain in 2 minutes. Traditional Al, if it writes a number, it writes it up to 32 decimal places for accuracy. DeepSeek said that if we use only 8 decimal points, it will still be accurate, but 75% memory consumption will be reduced. Normal Al reads like a first grader, DeepSeek tries to read the whole phrase at once.
It is not 100% but 90% accurate. But when you process billions of words, it gives good results. The traditional model has 1.8 trillion parameters eye and track on everything but DeepSeek says that we have only 671 billion parameters and only 37 billion parameters will be active at a time.
The rest can be summoned. If a task is required, we can activate it the net result is that the overall requirement of hardware is very low. Unlike specialized AI chips, this model can run on a gaming PC, making it far more accessible. It also consumes much less power—there’s no need for a massive data center or expensive chips to operate it efficiently.
That’s why what happened to Nvidia shares happened the biggest hit to American Al companies is that it is open source. Open source means that China has not hidden this algorithm. This is not the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda. You can open it, weigh it, change parameters, and experiment. People are doing this all over the world. They say that DeepSeek works better than Big Al software without expensive hardware or power requirements.
The Global Tech War: USA vs. China – Where Does Africa Stand
There is a fierce battle going on everywhere between the USA and China. Superpower versus upcoming superpower. Who will lead the 21st century? Fight is going on and no African country is visible. A geopolitical chess is going on. China is trying to move ahead fast. America is trying to checkmate it. And Africa?, we are busy in our politics and corruption. Because we don’t see a tech war. The world is planning the future 50 years ahead. We are busy in the excavation of 500 years ago.
Let’s see some samples. China became independent in 1948. Primary education focuses on health care. The economy became liberalized in 1978 a well-educated workforce and young population attracted foreign companies Chinese government invested profit in education infrastructure which increased productivity and attracted more companies.
China’s per capita income was 39.57% lower than Nigeria equal in 1990 Now China is 87.36% ahead of Nigeria. China’s per capita income grew by over 30 times (3,096%) in just 33 years.
In terms of average income avg Chinese is 5 times richer China is the 2nd largest economy in the world. It has 30% of global manufacturing. Combining numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 countries they cannot meet China 50 times ahead of Nigeria in total manufacturing.
What’s Next for the Future of AI and Global Power?
In 2012, Joe Biden stated that China’s communist system would never be innovative because free thinking and independent thought are not encouraged. He believed that the U.S. would always remain the global leader in technology and innovation. And most people believe this. But this is something that President Xi took personally. In 2015, Xi launched the Made in China 2025 program.
The aim was that China would not only manufacture low-value products but would also make cutting-edge technology. Let’s see what China has done in the last 10 years. In the field of research and development China invested heavily in R&D. In 2023, China’s R&D spent was $723 billion. Going towards a trillion in R&D spending.
This is almost equivalent to the US R&D spending and is 40 times more than Nigeria this was possible due to China’s economic power. To weaken this economy, Trump used the slogan ”Make America Great Again” to tariff Chinese goods worth $450 billion. Biden also continued this to control China in return, China diversified its trade. In the last 10 years, it has doubled its trade with ASEAN countries.
Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has invested $1 trillion in 150 countries. It has grown diplomatic and trade relations with countries of the Global South. Thanks to such diversification, managed the economy of Communist China. It has also invested in the tech race the first aspect of the race was renewable energy.
Just imagine how thoughtful China understood that if the US fights with them, it will block oil shipments from the sea route and the Chinese economy will be destroyed when it does not have an energy supply. That is why green energy was focused on so that China can become self-sufficient. If you look at the solar cell, 80% of the world’s solar cell production is in China. In China, solar modules are produced for 15 cents per watt 20% less than the US.
Conclusion
The global AI war has begun.
The US and its allies must now find ways to counter China’s AI revolution.
- Will the US innovate fast enough to reclaim leadership?
- Can OpenAI, Meta, and Google match DeepSeek’s efficiency?
- Will DeepSeek R1 become the new AI standard worldwide?
One thing is clear: The battle for global AI dominance is just beginning.