The release of a less capital-intensive artificial intelligence model from China’s DeepSeek sent a chill through the U.S. stock market Monday, initiating a massive selloff underscoring the fragile backdrop behind the record market.

DeepSeek released an open-source artificial intelligence model in December after saying that it took only two months and less than $6 million to create.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index lost nearly 4 percent in early trading Monday, with chipmaker Nvidia down nearly 12 percent.

US stock index futures tumbled in early Asian trading hours Monday amid concerns that an artificial intelligence model from China’s DeepSeek may disrupt the tech market. S&P 500 futures fell as much as 1 per cent as of 10:12 am in Hong Kong,