BEIJING, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Chinese startup DeepSeek's

AI Assistant on Monday overtook rival ChatGPT to become the

top-rated free application available on Apple's App Store in the

United States.

Powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, which its creators say

"tops the leaderboard among open-source models and rivals the

most advanced closed-source models globally", the artificial

intelligence application has surged in popularity among U.S.

users since it was released on Jan. 10, according to app data

research firm Sensor Tower.

The milestone highlights how DeepSeek has left a deep

impression on Silicon Valley, upending widely held views about

U.S. primacy in AI and the effectiveness of Washington's export

controls targeting China's advanced chip and AI capabilities.

AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek require advanced chips to

power their training. The Biden administration has since 2021

widened the scope of bans designed to stop these chips from

being exported to China and used to train Chinese firms' AI

models.

However, DeepSeek researchers wrote in a paper last month

that the DeepSeek-V3 used Nvidia's ( NVDA ) H800 chips for training,

spending less than $6 million.

Although this detail has since been disputed, the claim that

the chips used were less powerful than the most advanced Nvidia ( NVDA )

products Washington has sought to keep out of China, as well as

the relatively cheap training costs, has prompted U.S. tech

executives to question the effectiveness of tech export

controls.

Little is known about the company behind DeepSeek, a small

Hangzhou-based startup founded in 2023, when search engine giant

Baidu ( BIDU ) released the first Chinese AI large-language model.

Since then, dozens of Chinese tech companies large and small

have released their own AI models, but DeepSeek is the first to

be praised by the U.S. tech industry as matching or even

surpassing the performance of cutting-edge U.S. models.