Elon Musk has broken his silence on the Chinese AI model DeepSeek. The model has been grabbing attention worldwide for its low-cost and high-performance mechanism. Though most of the other tech leaders showered the startup with appreciation, Musk, instead, criticized it. He has raised doubts about the AI’s quick rise while questioning its transparency on hardware usage.
While Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff praised DeepSeek’s achievement, calling it proof that AI’s true value lies in data rather than expensive hardware on X (formerly known as ‘Twitter’). Musk was quick to dismiss the sentiment, replying to the post with a blunt ‘Lmao, no.’
Musk’s skepticism doesn't end there, as he also took a shot at the company’s Chinese origins. A user comically joked that DeepSeek's AI model, R1 was ‘leaked from a lab in China’. Musk responded with a laughing emoji as well, perhaps referring to controversies about the role of China in the transmission of COVID-19.
One of the major gripes of Musk is the reportedly high GPU usage of DeepSeek. The startup claims to have trained its AI model using 10,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs. Musk and other industry figures, such as Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, find this claim dubious.
Wang, in a recent CNBC interview, speculated that DeepSeek could be using as many as 50,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. However, the company is unable to disclose this due to US export restrictions on advanced chips. Musk replied on a short clip of Wang’s interview on X, with a simple "Obviously,” a seemingly sarcastic tone.
Musk’s criticism starkly contrasts the reactions of other technology leaders. Benioff called DeepSeek's achievement a ‘Deepgold’ moment, while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggested cheaper AI models would accelerate global adoption. Musk has shown little interest in acknowledging the company's success. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even admitted that DeepSeek had created an ‘impressive model’ for its price point.
For Musk, the skepticism may be driven by more than just concern about DeepSeek's transparency. With his own AI venture, xAI, Musk is in direct competition with companies like DeepSeek and OpenAI. xAI, which recently launched its Grok AI, is positioned to challenge the status quo in AI development. So, Musk's dismissal of DeepSeek may be an attempt to undermine a potential competitor.
Musk's skepticism may simply be a result of rivalry and thus unfounded or has some merit. One thing is certain, his comments bring another layer of controversy to DeepSeek's quick fame. How the future of AI will be shaped by DeepSeek’s cheaper AI version remains to be seen.