OpenAI and Microsoft CEOs hint at significant developments in their partnership as DeepSeek gains traction in the AI market with its cost-effective models. The competition heats up as both companies prepare to respond to the new challenges.

The recent surge of the potentially disruptive R1 AI model by Chinese startup DeepSeek is forcing tech leaders from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia to speak up to reassure investors.

Microsoft plans to spend $108 billion on data centres this fiscal year to meet customers' AI demands. Read more at straitstimes.com.

OpenAI—which faces multiple lawsuits for using content without permission—accuses DeepSeek of 'distillation,' a technique that use larger models' outputs to improve smaller ones.

"Investing 'very heavily' in capital expenditure and infrastructure is going to be a strategic advantage over time," Mark Zuckerberg said.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek burst on the scene this week with its latest AI model, which the startup claims performs as well as leading AI from OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic — but at a far lower cost to develop.