On 27 January 2025, the humongous valuations of US tech companies involved with artificial intelligence (AI) were suddenly called into question, when it was reported that a previously-little-known AI app from China had become the most-downloaded free app on the US App Store. That meant booting ChatGPT off the top spot, despite a smaller budget and restricted access to the most advanced chips from the likes of Nvidia.
Cue widespread interest in buying DeepSeek stock. But, it’s not yet a publicly-traded company and is still privately-owned. So you can’t invest in DeepSeek just yet. However, the surge in popularity with the release of its supposedly cheap DeepSeek V3 large language model (LLM) has created investing opportunities nonetheless. We’ll pin those down in this guide.
| Stock | Icon | 1-year performance (to Nov. '26) | 5-year performance (to Nov. '26) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) |  |
24.08% | 191.56% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) |  |
-23.90% | 37.11% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) |  |
77.42% | 263.22% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Oracle Corporation (ORCL) |  |
-45.55% | 46.23% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Amazon.com (AMZN) |  |
9.34% | 38.51% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) |  |
97.53% | 183.15% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Broadcom (AVGO) |  |
38.50% | 731.31% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT) |  |
138.34% | 1,043.00% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Arm Holdings plc (ARM) |  |
91.13% | 429.51% (3 years – 2023 IPO) | Invest Capital at risk |
| ASML Holding N.V. New York Registry Shares (ASML) |  |
115.75% | 158.30% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) |  |
252.25% | 538.18% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Tesla (TSLA) |  |
27.48% | 84.49% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Marvell Technology (MRVL) |  |
207.20% | 312.15% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Stock | Icon | 1-year performance (to Nov. '26) | 5-year performance (to Nov. '26) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applovin Corp (APP) |  |
27.20% | 639.06% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Grid Dynamics Holdings (GDYN) |  |
-43.45% | -70.33% | Invest Capital at risk |
| C3.ai (AI) |  |
-66.15% | -81.93% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Pegasystems (PEGA) |  |
-38.62% | -53.68% | Invest Capital at risk |
| BigBearai Holdings (BBAI) |  |
-56.34% | -68.53% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Palantir Technologies (PLTR) |  |
-10.00% | 525.74% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Symbotic (SYM) |  |
-10.07% | 340.12% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Upstart Holdings Inc (UPST) |  |
-39.43% | -92.95% | Invest Capital at risk |
| Uipath (PATH) |  |
-3.55% | -79.89% | Invest Capital at risk |
| SoundHound AI (SOUN) |  |
-40.80% | 92.80% (3 years – 2022 IPO) | Invest Capital at risk |
| Rezolve AI Limited (RZLV) |  |
3.29% | -75.84% (3 years) | Invest Capital at risk |
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DeepSeek is a Chinese AI firm that uses open source technology to create its LLM (ChatGPT is an example of another popular LLM). Open source just means that the coding and programming can be viewed by anyone, inlcuding developers and researchers – which helps to add a level of transparency.
The reason DeepSeek hit the headlines and grew in popularity in early 2025 is down to its latest LLM DeepSeek V3, which has deemed to be comparable to ChatGPT in terms of performance. But, what’s so interesting is that it has supposedley been created at a fraction of the cost, being trained for roughly $6 million (whereas ChatGPT cost upwards of $100 million).
"DeepSeek’s V3 LLM isn’t necessarily better than OpenAI’s ChatGPT, however reports suggest that it is pretty comparable in terms of performance and speed.
However, what’s interesting about this and the reason everyone has got their knickers in a twist is due to the lower costs involved. Although, it’s worth keeping in mind, these extremely low cost figures haven’t yet been independently verified.
We’re likely to see OpenAI fight back with a vengeance and it’s going to have to if it wants to justify its high costs if equivalent technology can be created in China for just a slither of the cost."
At the moment, you can’t buy shares in DeepSeek or OpenAI. However, the AI tech that’s being released is still likely to have an impact on the stock market and firms linked with any part of the AI ecosystem and supply chain could see periods of volatility as these firms battle it out.
It’s early days for DeepSeek and it’s hard to gauge how successful the firm will be, but it goes to show that the stock market is very sensitive at the moment and it could be a sign that we may get some dips and possible buying opportunities over the coming months and years.
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