On the 27th, U.S. President Donald Trump noted regarding the artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek that "it should raise an alarm for American industry."
During a Republican House conference underway in Florida, Trump said, "Some Chinese corporations want to develop AI methods that are faster and much cheaper, and that would be a good thing because it means we wouldn't need to spend a lot of money."
He also remarked, "If that (DeepSeek's AI development) is true, I think positively about it because it means you can achieve the same results without spending a lot of money."
Earlier that day, the technology-focused Nasdaq index on the New York Stock Exchange closed down 612.47 points (-3.07%) at 19,341.83. This was influenced by the drop in stock prices of big tech companies related to AI. On that day, Nvidia's stock price fell by 16.97%, resulting in a market capitalization loss of $589 billion (847 trillion won). This amount is more than double the market cap of Samsung Electronics.
The sharp decline in Nvidia's stock price that day followed the news that DeepSeek had launched a service capable of competing with America's ChatGPT. DeepSeek claims to have developed the open-source AI model "DeepSeek-R1" in two months at a cost of less than $6 million. This represents one-tenth of the training costs that Meta invested in its latest AI model, Llama 3.
Trump also stated, "I signed an executive order last week to repeal Joe Biden's destructive AI regulations," adding, "As a result, AI corporations can once again focus on becoming the best." He continued, "We will leverage technology corporations to dominate the future in unprecedented ways."
Trump indicated during his speech that overseas companies building factories in the U.S. would receive tax cut benefits, while tariffs would be imposed in the opposite case.
He cited pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and steel as industries subject to tariff imposition, saying, "If I had not imposed large-scale steel tariffs during my first term, there would not have been a single steel plant in the U.S.," and added, "If tariffs had not been imposed on washers, dryers, and the like, all the companies in Ohio would have gone bankrupt."
He also remarked, "We imposed tariffs because South Korea was dumping washers in Ohio, and we raised it from a 50% tariff to 75% and even 100%."
He further stated, "We will also impose tariffs on items needed for military use, such as steel, aluminum, and copper," adding, "We will secure rare earth minerals in an environmentally friendly way to relocate production back to America."
Regarding the sale of the Chinese video platform TikTok, Trump said, "Many people will participate in the bidding, and China will not be involved."
Meanwhile, Trump commented on the 2028 presidential election, saying, "I have raised a lot of money for the next campaign, but it seems I won't be able to use it for myself; however, I can't be 100% sure." He also asked House Speaker Mike Johnson, "I can't be sure, but can I run again?"
The U.S. Constitution limits the presidential term to two. Accordingly, Trump, who already served a term from 2017 to 2021, is unable to seek a third term.