The new AI assistant released by Chinese startup DeepSeek has rattled the U.S. technology sector after it reportedly developed a model on par with leading U.S. peers at a lower cost.

DeepSeek's new AI model has sparked concerns about Nvidia's dominance in the AI hardware market, causing a drop in the chipmaker's stock and raising questions about the future of high-performance AI chips.

Wall Street is tumbling on fears the big U.S. companies that have feasted on the artificial-intelligence frenzy are under threat from a competitor in China.

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.

By Amanda Cooper and Ankur Banerjee LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Investors hammered technology stocks on Monday, sending the likes of Nvidia and Oracle plummeting, as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model cast doubts on dominance of U.