AFP=Yonhap News

The artificial intelligence (AI) developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek has caused the assets of the world's IT billionaires to evaporate.

According to Bloomberg News on the 27th (local time), the billionaires among the world's top 500 asset holders lost about $108 billion (approximately 156.3 trillion won) in just one day due to a sell-off centered on tech stocks following the shock from DeepSeek. On that day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index on the New York Stock Exchange fell 3.07% compared to the previous trading day.

Among the billionaires, those in the AI field suffered the biggest losses. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the largest beneficiary of the AI boom, lost $20.1 billion (approximately 29.7 trillion won). Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, saw $22.6 billion (approximately 32.7 trillion won) evaporate. While Ellison's loss was larger, his asset dropped by 12%, compared to a 20% reduction in Huang's asset.

Additionally, the loss for Michael Dell, founder of Dell, was estimated at $13 billion (approximately 18.8 trillion won), while the loss for Zhao Changpeng, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, was estimated at $12.1 billion (approximately 17.5 trillion won).

However, some IT tycoons appeared to have increased their assets.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook's parent company Meta, saw his asset increase by $4.3 billion (approximately 6.2 trillion won) on that day, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s asset rose by $630 million (approximately 900.1 billion won). This was because the confirmation of the possibility to implement AI like DeepSeek without astronomical expenses on Nvidia chips positively influenced stock prices.

In the case of Meta, it announced plans to invest up to $65 billion (approximately 94 trillion won) this year in building AI infrastructure such as data centers.