STORY: Donald Trump says news of Chinese AI system DeepSeek should be seen as a positive.

The U.S. president said it should just spur American tech firms to do better:

“The release of DeepSeek A. from a Chinese company should be a wake up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win, because we have the greatest scientists in the world, even Chinese leadership told me that.”

Trump was speaking in Miami on Monday, after news about DeepSeek sparked a global stock selloff.

Traders dumped big tech names following reports that the Chinese system could match or beat U.S. rivals, at a fraction of the cost.

That raised questions over whether future demand for chips and data centers would be as huge as expected, making Nvidia the day’s big loser.

It saw $593 billion wiped off its market value – a record one-day loss for any Wall Street stock.

The losses continued in Asia on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei index down around 1% in early trades.

Chip gear maker Advantest – a major supplier to Nvidia – was the morning’s big loser, falling around 10%.

Trump said it was unusual to see U.S. firms beaten on tech – but said industry and investors should welcome the prospect of lower costs:

“So I would say that’s a positive, that could be very much a positive development. So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with hopefully the same solution.”

Little is known about the startup behind DeepSeek.

But researchers claim it was developed for less than $6 million – a tiny fraction of the billions being spent on AI by U.S. firms.