US chipmaker Nvidia has lost more than $500bn in market value after Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek launched a free smart assistant that uses less data at a lower cost.

DeepSeek triggered a massive sell-off in tech stocks on the Monday after its launch, leading to a significant drop in Nvidia’s market capitalisation.

DeepSeek quickly spread globally, putting pressure on tech stocks and topping the list of most downloaded free apps in the US, beating rival apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Nvidia shares were down nearly 17% at $118.19 by 21:50 GMT, compared to $142.62 at Friday’s close.