China’s A.I. advances rattled the markets
Stocks sank yesterday in the U.S. as investors were shaken by the advances of the Chinese A.I. company DeepSeek. Primarily driven by tech stocks, the sell-off also dented market indexes in Europe and Japan.
DeepSeek claims to have matched the abilities of cutting-edge chatbots while using far fewer specialized computer chips. That threatens the power and prospects of tech giants in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The chipmaker Nvidia plunged more than 16 percent yesterday, erasing hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. The Nasdaq dropped about 3 percent.
Jason Karaian, our deputy Business editor, told me that analysts were calling DeepSeek’s emergence a “slap in the face” for investors, who may now be reassessing their expectations for big returns from the A.I. race. Here’s what to know about DeepSeek.
Tech competition: Last week, President Trump signed an executive order intended to speed the development of A.I., as the U.S. tries to maintain dominance in the field. DeepSeek’s apparent advances, despite U.S. efforts to limit the sales of powerful chips to China, “was as much a jolt to Washington as to Wall Street,” Jason said.
Colombia agreed to accept deportees after a U.S. threat
President Gustavo Petro of Colombia agreed yesterday to allow U.S. military planes to fly unauthorized immigrants from the U.S. to his country, a day after President Trump threatened Colombia with high tariffs and sanctions.
The clash reflected how Trump was ready to make an example out of Colombia as countries around the world have grappled with how to prepare for the mass deportations that he has promised.
The quick surrender is likely to encourage Trump to use the same weapon against other countries. A number of governments have taken notice and are seeking help to navigate the new administration.
Lobbyists wanted: Panama, which is pushing back against Trump’s threat to reclaim the Panama Canal, recently signed a contract with a team of Washington lobbyists with Trump ties. Just before the inauguration, Denmark began searching for a well-connected group with ties to Trump after the president said he wanted the U.S. to take over Greenland.
More on Trump
Auschwitz ceremonies were held as the far-right rises
Dozens of world leaders joined a group of fewer than 50 Nazi death camp survivors in Poland yesterday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered.
The remembrance came as Germany and the rest of Europe experience a rise in hard-right politics that is widely viewed as an echo of the nationalism that brought Hitler to power in the 1930s.
Germany: Just days before the commemoration, Elon Musk spoke at a rally for the hard-right Alternative for Germany party, saying that the country had “too much of a focus on past guilt.” Friedrich Merz, who leads in the polls for the chancellor election next month, opened the door to working with the AfD.
MIDDLE EAST
Life in Venice might be best experienced in winter, when its canals, ancient arches and restaurants are not packed with throngs of summer tourists. Or, at least, that’s what the poet Joseph Brodsky thought. Inspired by his accounts of a frosty Venice, a Danish writer and his daughter retraced Brodsky’s steps to find beauty in the cold.
Lives lived: Clinton Bailey, who documented the traditions of Bedouin tribes of the Middle East and helped preserve a vanishing culture, has died at 88.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
A new plan to bring power to Africa
More than a half-billion people in Africa are without electricity. This week, a World Bank-led initiative pledged at least $35 billion to get power to half of the continent’s unelectrified people using solar “minigrids.” These would make it easier to get power to places without existing infrastructure.
Despite the political will behind the effort, many in Africa’s power sector are deeply skeptical. Recently, a major U.S. maker of solar minigrids tried to go into business in Tanzania. When it closed up shop, thousands were left powerless and frustrated. Read more.
