By Sinéad Carew, Amanda Cooper and Ankur Banerjee LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Investors made a quick exit from a host of technology stocks from Tokyo to New York on Monday as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model challenged the dominance of current AI leaders such as Nvidia .

In international markets, chipmaking and electrification companies saw pressure on the fears over the DeepSeek AI service. SoftBank -- the company that said it would fund up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure as well as the main shareholder of microchip designer ARM -- saw its stock dive 8%.

DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial-intelligence chatbot, has shocked Silicon Valley with its cost-effective approach—and rattled global tech investors. Shares in Japan’s [SoftBank Group](

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is shifting his focus away from investments in China and toward the US, as seen with his involvement with President Donald Trump and the recently announced Stargate.

Chinese startup DeepSeek has shaken the belief that only a few firms with huge budgets can compete in the artificial intelligence field — potentially challenging an investment case that rewarded the biggest players with rich valuations.

On the second day of his presidency on Tuesday, Donald Trump announced the Stargate Project, a $500 billion joint venture among OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle, and MGX, to build AI-focused data centres across the US.

Shares of Japanese chip-related firms were feeling the heat on Monday. Today’s slump comes as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek gained traction with its updated AI model, raising fears about potential challenges to US technological dominance.

DeepSeek topped the Apple App Store chart and sparked fears the Chinese company was quickly catching up with OpenAI's ChatGPT while costing far less.

Asian shares are mixed after China rolled out more moves to boost its lagging stock markets. Hong Kong and Shanghai rose but then shed some of their initial gains early Thursday. Officials in Beijing said pension funds and mutual funds would be required to increase purchases of shares,

President Donald Trump has announced the Stargate initiative, a significant collaboration involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, with an initial investment of $100 billion. The project aims to enhance the U.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's plan to invest billions in AI in the United States shows one way to handle the new Trump administration: go big and deal with the details later.

Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan on Monday as surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model wobbled investors' faith in the profitability of AI and the sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.