DeepSeek disrupts Malaysia’s, Southeast Asia’s data centre dreams amid investment ‘rethink’

The emergence of Chinese start-up DeepSeek into the AI race has raised questions over the viability of data centres across Southeast Asia, experts said, as established tech giants wrangle with the challenge of a cheaper newcomer undercutting their multibillion-dollar development budgets.

US tech stocks fell on Monday, after DeepSeek released a free AI chatbot that it claims uses less data and was developed for just US$6 million, a fraction of what Silicon Valley giants like Microsoft have spent to develop their competing versions.

Stocks in Nvidia – maker of the leading chips used to train AI models – were the worst hit as investors were concerned at the disparity in development costs between DeepSeek and its biggest competitors – Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and Google’s Gemini.

Reportedly using fewer chips from Nvidia competitor AMD, DeepSeek has brought into question the big bets made by Southeast Asian nations on lucrative – albeit resource-intensive – data centre investments.

“It is still too early to say how DeepSeek will change the entire ecosystem, but what it has done is it has definitely forced investors to rethink their investments in AI,” said Adib Zalkapli, managing director of Viewfinder Global Affairs, a geopolitical and public policy advisory firm.

“We can expect more similar competitions and disruptions in [the] future.”

  

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