Microsoft confirmed it will bring the DeepSeek R1 model to Azure cloud and GitHub in a move that it hopes will lessen its reliance on OpenAI's models.

DeepSeek last week launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services. By Monday, the assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's App Store,

Despite the controversy surrounding the Chinese open-source model, it has received the blessing of US companies that say their versions of it are safer and feature less censorship.

In an apparent response to the attention on a new AI model out of China, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted online

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

The tech giants on Wednesday talked up their AI strategies and said they are sticking with ambitious investments in the technology despite the investor panic this week over the ri