DeepSeek limits registrations to Chinese phone numbers amid AI app popularity surge

DeepSeek, the company behind the recently popular AI app that topped download charts in the U.S. and elsewhere, has announced a significant change in its registration process. As of today, the company will only accept new registrations from users with mainland China mobile (HK: 0941 ) phone numbers. This move comes after the app experienced a service outage today due to the surge in usage.

The company's status page was updated to reflect the new registration policy, stating, "Currently, only registration with a mainland China mobile phone number is supported."

The China-based AI company caused a stir in the tech community Monday, sending AI-related tech stocks tumbling. Notably, AI giant NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA )'s stock fell by 13% amidst concerns regarding AI capital expenditure spending due to DeepSeek's efficient use of older, cheaper NVIDIA chips.

DeepSeek claims to possess only 10,000 A100 GPUs, costing a mere $6 million, although there is speculation that the company may actually be utilizing around 50,000 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs. However, due to U.S. export controls, the company cannot confirm this information.