DeepSeek has become the dominant topic in corporate earnings calls, with the Chinese AI startup mentioned in at least nine earnings calls last week according to AlphaSense data—a dramatic increase from just a single mention before its bombshell announcement about cost-effective AI models. Major tech companies including Alphabet, AMD, Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and IBM have all addressed DeepSeek’s impact during their quarterly earnings reports.
The overall sentiment from tech executives has been surprisingly optimistic despite initial market disruption that caused wild swings in Big Tech share prices. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky described AI and low-cost models like DeepSeek as having a “profound impact on travel,” noting that models are becoming “cheaper or nearly free” and increasingly commoditized. ARM CEO Rene Haas called DeepSeek “great for the industry,” emphasizing that it drives efficiency and expands demand for overall compute.
AMD CEO Lisa Su praised DeepSeek for driving innovation that’s “good for AI adoption,” while Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the company had done “very good work” but maintained that Google’s Gemini model remains superior. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged DeepSeek as a “new competitor” and said its emergence has “only strengthened our conviction” about Meta’s open-source AI strategy.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Copilot+ PC laptops would soon run DeepSeek’s R1 distilled models locally, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said leaders were “impressed with what DeepSeek has done” and emphasized that cheaper AI costs won’t reduce overall technology spending. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna called DeepSeek “a point of validation” for IBM’s year-long focus on smaller, more efficient models.
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar took a more geopolitical stance, stating “we are at war with China” and describing the situation as an “AI arms race.” He praised DeepSeek’s engineering as “exquisite” and warned that “the time to mobilize has come.” AT&T CEO John Stankey predicted that lower-cost AI would “open up and facilitate new applications and business models,” calling generative AI “a seminal technology cycle” comparable to the founding of the Internet. Infrastructure providers like Flex and Corning also weighed in, suggesting that DeepSeek’s efficiency gains would ultimately drive greater demand for AI infrastructure and networking technologies.
Key Quotes
I think it’s a really exciting time in the space because you’ve seen like with DeepSeek and more competition with models is models are getting cheaper or nearly free, they’re getting faster, and they’re getting more intelligent and for all this purpose, starting to get commoditized.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky explained during the company’s February 13 earnings call how DeepSeek represents a broader trend toward AI commoditization, which he sees as an opportunity for platforms that can best leverage AI to create value.
But I think the real lesson, the more profound one, is that we are at war with China. We are in an AI arms race.
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar took a starkly geopolitical view during the February 3 earnings call, framing DeepSeek not just as a competitive threat but as evidence of a broader technological conflict between nations, warning that ’the time to mobilize has come.'
When technologies become less expensive, some people say that somehow it’s going to lead to less total spend in technology. We have never seen that to be the case.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy addressed investor concerns about DeepSeek’s lower costs potentially reducing cloud infrastructure spending, drawing on historical precedent to argue that efficiency gains typically expand markets rather than shrink them.
This is a seminal technology cycle. It’s going to be every bit as big as the founding of the Internet when it’s all said and done.
AT&T CEO John Stankey placed DeepSeek and generative AI in historical context during the January 27 earnings call, comparing the current moment to the internet’s creation and predicting that lower-cost AI will enable entirely new business models.
Our Take
The uniformity of executive responses reveals a carefully calibrated messaging strategy: acknowledge DeepSeek’s innovation while emphasizing that it validates rather than threatens existing AI investments. This consensus is remarkable given the initial market panic that wiped billions from tech valuations.
What’s particularly telling is the bifurcation between technical and geopolitical narratives. Most CEOs focused on efficiency gains and market expansion, but Palantir’s framing as an “AI arms race” introduces a national security dimension that could influence future policy and investment decisions. The fact that Microsoft is integrating DeepSeek models into Copilot+ PCs suggests American tech giants are pragmatically adopting Chinese innovations despite geopolitical tensions—a nuanced reality that contradicts simplistic narratives about technological decoupling. The infrastructure providers’ optimism is especially significant, as their business models depend on continued AI buildout. Their confidence that efficiency drives adoption rather than reducing spending could prove prescient or wishful thinking depending on how enterprise AI economics evolve over the next 12-18 months.
Why This Matters
DeepSeek’s emergence represents a pivotal moment in the AI industry, forcing every major technology company to reassess their strategies and competitive positioning. The widespread discussion across earnings calls demonstrates that this isn’t just a temporary market blip—it’s a fundamental shift in how AI development and deployment are perceived.
The cost-efficiency breakthrough achieved by DeepSeek challenges the prevailing assumption that AI advancement requires massive capital expenditure and computational resources. This democratization of AI capabilities could accelerate adoption across industries and enable smaller companies to compete with tech giants. The geopolitical implications are equally significant, with executives like Palantir’s Sankar framing this as an AI arms race between the U.S. and China.
For businesses and investors, the consensus optimism suggests that more efficient AI models will expand the total addressable market rather than cannibalize existing revenue streams. This could validate continued infrastructure investment while simultaneously lowering barriers to entry for AI innovation. The fact that companies from chipmakers to telecom providers are all addressing DeepSeek indicates its impact extends far beyond the immediate AI development community into the broader technology ecosystem.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/deepseek-hot-topic-earnings-calls-exec-analyst-questions-2025-1