Global billionaires lose $108B over Chinese DeepSeek AI model

DeepSeek app

Global billionaires faced massive losses as tech stocks plunged worldwide, driven by the rising prominence of an artificial intelligence model developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the world’s 500 richest individuals collectively lost $108 billion on Monday following turbulence in global markets.

The hardest-hit were billionaires whose wealth is tied to the AI sector. Leading the losses was Jensen Huang, CEO of US chipmaker Nvidia, who saw his fortune shrink by 20%, or $20.1 billion.

By absolute value, the biggest loser was Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, who lost $22.6 billion, equivalent to a 12% drop in his wealth.

Michael Dell, founder and chairman of Dell Technologies, saw his fortune decline by $13 billion, while Changpeng Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, shed nearly $12 billion.

In total, billionaires tied to the tech sector saw combined losses of $94 billion, accounting for 85% of the total wealth decline tracked by the index.

The surge in popularity of DeepSeek’s AI application took Wall Street investors and Silicon Valley leaders by surprise. The Chinese startup recently succeeded in developing a high-capability large language model that rivals advanced systems like ChatGPT by OpenAI, despite being built at a lower cost and amid US restrictions on exporting advanced chips to China.