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This week’s news that the DeepSeek Chatbot app, developed by China, was downloaded from the Apple app store significantly more times than the US-developed ChatGPT from Open AI, wiped billions off the global tech market.

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DeepSeek’s sudden splash in the large language model space has given China a powerful tool to catalyze artificial-intelligence adoption in the country and boost economic growth.

While Goldman Sachs pegs a 20-basis-point to 30-basis-point boost to China’s GDP over the long term — by 2030 — its expects the country’s economy to start reflecting the positive impact of AI adoption from next year itself as AI-driven automation improves productivity.

“The recent emergence of DeepSeek … suggests faster AI development and adoption in China than we previously anticipated,” economists at the Wall Street bank said.

The enthusiasm around DeepSeek is also being reflected in the sharp rally in China stocks, with the MSCI China index soaring over 21% from its January low, according to LSEG data.

The startup’s rise is triggering a reassessment of China’s “investability” after an extended period of limited attention, Morgan Stanley said in a note this week.

“DeepSeek demonstrates that China is at or near the cutting edge of AI development, which boosts the prestige of China’s economy and tech ecosystem, making them more attractive for global investors,” said Gabriel Wildau, managing director at Teneo.

The company’s launch of a cheaper and more efficient AI model came as a timely confidence boost as the Chinese leadership faces a prolonged economic gloom, partly owed to the slump in its property market, while the specter of a fierce trade war with the U.S. looms large.

DeepSeek’s R-1 reasoning model has been lauded as being able to match, or even outperform, leading global AI offerings amid claims of running on cheaper and less sophisticated chips. The open-source model also can be repurposed by developers outside the company to significantly boost efficiency at a lower operating costs.

The startup has shaken China’s AI ecosystem as well, with state-owned entities as well as large tech players, including competitors, leveraging its open-sourced architecture.

“The scale and speed of [AI] adoption [in China] is amazingly fast right now, and it’s not slowing down,” said Wei Sun, principal analyst of artificial intelligence at Counterpoint Research.

Beijing’s stamp of approval 

In a well-choreographed meeting earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warmly greeted DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng and granted him a coveted front-row seat next to leaders of the country’s biggest private enterprises.

That showed Beijing is eager to support the company, said Huiyao Wang, founder and president of Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank.

“DeepSeek represents exactly what Beijing is keen to see by ‘new-quality productive force’ that will push China forward,” Wang added, referring to a strategy coined by Xi last year that bets on technological breakthroughs to fuel growth and productivity gains across the economy.

Chinese leadership last year vowed “a leap forward” by spurring new growth drivers based on innovation in advanced sectors, such as AI and semiconductors, as U.S. export controls on advanced equipment and the most advanced semiconductors thwarted its ability to make major tech breakthroughs.

With Beijing signaling support for the startup, a growing number of local governments, from Hohhot in northern China to the southern city of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, are launching DeepSeek-powered “public servants” to automate governance, handling requests from administrative paper work to general public services.

At least three state-owned telecommunications operators have also adopted the cutting-edge model in recent weeks.

Private businesses have tapped the new model to see how it can improve productivity. Automakers, financial services companies, smartphone makers and cloud computing operators including Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent have rushed in recent weeks to integrate with DeepSeek.

“With DeepSeek becoming a global household name in a matter of weeks, Beijing is [using it as an opportunity] to showcase China’s tech champions and demonstrate Chinese tech resilience and innovation in the face of US-led controls,” said Reva Goujon, director at Rhodium Group.

Labor worries

Economists, however, warned that the pace of AI adoption should be “managed carefully” in China, which is already facing a weak labor market and high unemployment rate.

The “job destruction” effects by AI, while raising labor productivity, could exacerbate deflation and further weaken the economy, Goldman Sachs said.

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for $74.7 million

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for .7 million

Anne Wojcicki attends the WSJ Magazine Style & Tech Dinner in Atherton, California, on March 15, 2023.

Kelly Sullivan | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital have submitted a proposal to take the embattled genetic testing company private, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wojcicki and New Mountain have offered to acquire all of 23andMe’s outstanding shares in cash for $2.53 per share, or an equity value of approximately $74.7 million. The company’s stock closed at $2.42 on Friday with a market cap of about $65 million.

The offer comes after a turbulent year for 23andMe, with the stock losing more than 80% of its value in 2024. In January, the company announced plans to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination. 

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23andMe has a special committee of independent directors in place to evaluate potential paths forward. The company appointed three new independent directors to its board in October after all seven of its previous directors abruptly resigned the prior month. The special committee has to approve Wojcicki and New Mountain’s proposal.

“We believe that our Proposal provides compelling value and immediate liquidity to the Company’s public stockholders,” Wojcicki and Matthew Holt, managing director and president of private equity at New Mountain, wrote in a letter to the special committee on Thursday.

Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.

Wojcicki and New Mountain are willing to provide secured debt financing to fund 23andMe’s operations through the transaction’s closing, the filing said. New Mountain is based in New York and has $55 billion of assets under management, according to its website.

23andMe declined to comment.

WATCH: The rise and fall of 23andMe

The rise and fall of 23andMe

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

Hims & Hers

Shares of Hims & Hers Health tumbled more than 23% on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the shortage of semaglutide injection products has been resolved.

Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. Those medications are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1s, and demand for the treatments has exploded in recent years. As a result, digital health companies such as Hims & Hers have been prescribing compounded semaglutide as an alternative for patients who are navigating volatile supply hurdles and insurance obstacles.

Compounded drugs are custom-made alternatives to brand-name drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs, and compounders are allowed to produce them when brand-name treatments are in shortage. The FDA doesn’t review the safety and efficacy of compounded products.

Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide to patients in May, and it owns compounding pharmacies that produce the medications.

Compounded medications are typically much cheaper than their branded counterparts. Hims & Hers sells compounded semaglutide for less than $200 per month, while Ozempic and Wegovy both cost around $1,000 per month without insurance.

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The FDA said Friday that it will start taking action against compounders for violations in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, in order to “avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment.”

“Now that the FDA has determined the drug shortage for semaglutide has been resolved, we will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law to meet patient needs,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum posted Friday on X. “We’re also closely monitoring potential future shortages, as Novo Nordisk stated two weeks ago that it would continue to have ‘capacity limitations’ and ‘expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications.'”

Him & Hers’ weight loss offerings have been a massive hit with investors. Shares of the company climbed more than 200% last year, and the stock is already up more than 100% this year despite Friday’s move.

Even before it added compounded GLP-1s to its portfolio, the company said in its 2023 fourth-quarter earnings call that it expects its weight loss program to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025.

Despite the turbulent regulatory landscape, Hims & Hers has showed no signs of slowing down.

On Friday, the company announced it has acquired a U.S.-based peptide facility that will “further verticalize the company’s long-term ability to deliver personalized medications.” Hims & Hers will explore advances across metabolic optimization, recovery science, biological resistances, cognitive performance and preventative health through the acquisition, the company said.

That move comes just days after Hims & Hers also bought Trybe Labs, the New Jersey-based at-home lab testing facility. Trybe Labs will allow Hims & Hers to perform at-home blood draws and more comprehensive pretreatment testing.

Hims & Hers did not disclose the terms of either deal.

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Hims & Hers Super Bowl ad sparks controversy

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla dealership in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

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Tesla is voluntarily recalling 376,241vehicles in the U.S. to correct an issue with failing power-assisted steering systems, according to records posted to the website of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a safety recall report posted on the NHTSA website, Tesla said the recall includes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were manufactured for sale in the U.S. from Feb. 28, 2023, to October 11, 2023, and that were equipped with a certain older software release.

The records said printed circuit boards in the steering systems in affected vehicles could become overstressed, causing the power-assist steering to fail in some cases when a Tesla vehicle rolled to a stop and then accelerated.

When electronic power-assist steering systems fail in a Tesla, drivers need to exert more force to steer their cars, which can increase the risk of a collision.

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Tesla told the vehicle safety regulator that it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the power steering failures, and that it was offering an over-the-air software update as a remedy.

The recall follows an earlier related probe and voluntary recall in China concerning the same systems.

President Donald Trump has appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a team that is slashing the federal government workforce, and in some cases, regulations and entire agencies. Those cuts already affected the NHTSA, an agency Musk has long seen as standing in the way of some of his ambitions at Tesla.

The regulator has been engaged in a yearslong investigation into safety defects in the systems that Tesla markets currently as its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) options. The features do not make Tesla cars into robotaxis. They require a human driver ready to steer or brake at any time.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Musk’s team has led mass firings at the NHTSA, reducing the agency’s workforce and capacity to investigate companies including Tesla by about 10%.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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