KEY TAKEAWAYS OpenAI said Wednesday that it is probing whether Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek improperly used its data to launch the low-cost model that spooked markets Monday.The comment by OpenAI follows a Bloomberg report that both OpenAI and its biggest backer Microsoft are investigating DeepSeek's model.

DeepSeek’s claim that it has found a lower cost way to create AI models has made software stocks a hot trade. The sudden emergence of DeepSeek’s model at first sent stocks with deep ties to the AI revolution into a nose dive on concerns that efficiency improvements could lead to reduced hardware spending.