Ex–Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger sees 3 reasons for optimism after DeepSeek’s startling debut

• History says that making computing “dramatically cheaper will expand the market for it. The markets are getting it wrong, this will make AI much more broadly deployed.” As Gelsinger well knows, the story of infotech is that input prices keep falling, and the industry keeps growing. Even after stock markets closed after a traumatic Monday, nine of the 10 most valuable stocks traded on U.S. exchanges were tech companies.

• “Engineering is about constraints. The Chinese engineers had limited resources, and they had to find creative solutions.” It’s an iron law of markets: Competition brings out innovation. In this case, U.S. export controls kept DeepSeek from getting the leading-edge Nvidia chips that U.S. AI companies use. Now those U.S. companies must innovate to match DeepSeek’s engineering.

• “Open Wins. DeepSeek will help reset the increasingly closed world of foundational AI model work.” DeepSeek’s AI models are open-source, meaning software developers at large can see the software and improve it. The company makes money by charging companies that want to use the models. Open-source software isn’t new. Google, IBM, Microsoft, and many others have produced open-source software for years. The rationale is that contributors worldwide improve the software faster and better than any company could improve it alone.

Gelsinger sees AI following the turbulent history of infotech over the past several decades. Note that he isn’t picking winners. He’s saying DeepSeek’s achievement is a big step forward in the world-changing advances of technology, regardless of who wins or loses. His conclusion: “Thank you DeepSeek team.”