DeepSeek lights a fire under Silicon Valley
Today, we're breaking down all things DeepSeek, plus the latest on Tesla earnings, Nucleus Genomics’ $14M raise, and Helion’s $425M raise.
Equity · TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa Loconsolo
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Show Notes
DeepSeek, DeepSeek, DeepSeek. We couldn’t escape the headlines around the Chinese AI lab this week. The startup -- which claims to have built its models more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of competitors -- lit a fire under Silicon Valley after releasing its R1 “reasoning” model and displacing ChatGPT as the App Store’s top app.
Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Margaux MacColl and Max Zeff are digging into the latest news, including the reactions from both tech giants and the U.S. government, which is increasingly concerned that China is pulling ahead in the AI arms race.
Listen to the full episode to also hear about:
- Tesla earnings -- from promises made to robotaxi updates, and questions left unanswered. Don’t worry, Kirsten brought her bingo board if you want to play along.
- Nucleus Genomics’ $14 million raise for DNA sequencing and analysis.
- The demand for fusion, and Helion’s $425M raise to build its own fusion reactor for Microsoft.
Equity has a special DeepSeek deep dive on the way for those who want more, so stay tuned!
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.
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Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
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