‘More serious than DeepSeek’: Chinese start-up kills AI euphoria

Jul 20, 2026 – 4.00pm In January last year, Chinese start-up DeepSeek unleashed carnage in equity markets after releasing its R1 artificial intelligence model, which boasted similar capabilities to major US rivals but at a fraction of the cost. Just 18 months later, markets are facing an even bigger threat after another Chinese start-up called MoonShot on Friday unveiled its new Kimi K3 model that competes with the capabilities of the top-tier offerings from US AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI. Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Fetching latest articles