DeepSeek’s Recent Explosion in Popularity Continues to Pose a Challenge for the AI Startup

DeepSeek’s recent surge in popularity has been a double-edged sword for the AI startup. A notification spotted by Bloomberg revealed that the company has been forced to limit access to its application programming interface service due to a shortage of server capacity.

In a statement, DeepSeek explained that the temporary suspension of API service recharges was necessary to prevent any potential impact on its users’ operations. However, existing balances can still be used for calls, and the company appreciates its users’ understanding in this matter.

Separately, DeepSeek announced that it would be increasing its pricing for its chat model, effective February 8. The new prices will be $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens.

DeepSeek’s rise to prominence has been swift and significant. The company’s R1 model, launched on January 20, has been met with overwhelming demand for its services. DeepSeek’s ability to train R1 at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model has sent shockwaves through the tech industry.

The news of DeepSeek’s chatbot’s success has had a profound impact on the market, with major tech stocks including NVIDIA shedding $1 trillion in value on the Monday following the launch. OpenAI has since responded by releasing its o3-mini model and the Deep Research feature for ChatGPT.

Since its debut, DeepSeek has been dealing with the strain of its rapid growth. The company’s emergence as a leading premier AI provider has caught investors off guard, leading to a panic sell-off in the tech sector.


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