DeepSeek’s launch of its latest artificial intelligence model could likely trigger a broad reassessment of stocks across the industry chain from chipmakers to large language model developers, analysts say, with the breakthrough poised to drive demand for computing power and more commercial adoption.

The unveiling of the V4 series marked another milestone for the Hangzhou-based start-up, which described the model as the most powerful open-source platform capable of challenging US rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It delivered top-tier performance in coding benchmarks and showed significant advantages in reasoning and agentic tasks, according to DeepSeek.

AI chipmakers such as Cambricon Technologies and Moore Threads Technology stand to benefit, with the new progress spurring demand for more high-performance chips produced in mainland China. The launch may also lower the costs of AI integration into daily life and broaden commercial usage, potentially benefiting AI firms such as MiniMax and Knowledge Atlas Technology, better known as Zhipu.

“DeepSeek’s V4 has lowered the threshold for using high-performance AI models and will offer more affordable AI capabilities to small and medium-sized enterprises or even individuals,” said Su Lingyao, an analyst at BOC International. “DeepSeek’s V4 is also highly compatible with domestically made chips, and that will accelerate the commercialisation of AI computing power in China.”

Potential beneficiaries include chipmakers from Hygon Information Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits to fab operators such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor, according to brokerages.

China’s AI chip market could rise to 1.34 trillion yuan (US$196.2 billion) in 2029 from 142.5 billion yuan in 2024, translating into an annual compound growth rate of 54 per cent, according to Guotai Haitong Securities.