DeepSeek is a Wake-Up Call for Silicon Valley

An example of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. For far too long, software development has grown increasingly bureaucratic, weighed down by endless unnecessary and often ridiculous processes.

Non-Medium Members: You can read this article free on Substack.

Following DeepSeek’s appearance in global tech news headlines, its impact was swiftly felt across the financial markets.

Source: CNBC

As of 2025–01–27

If OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) were a publicly traded company, its stock price drop would likely be far more severe. DeepSeek’s API costs are roughly 1/30th of ChatGPT while delivering on-par (if not better) quality.

If this news doesn’t sound alarming, let me recap the recent developments that highlight China’s rapidly advancing software capabilities over the past few months.

• “TikTok-ban-if-not-sold” dominated the news over the last…