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Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) Deepseek has been gaining ground in many developing nations, surpassing US models that are popular in the West, according to a new report from Microsoft.
In the intensifying global race for AI dominance, DeepSeek has emerged as a fast-rising Chinese contender. Its open-source and cost-efficient models challenge leading American platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
A recent report from Microsoft found that DeepSeek’s market share was an estimated 56 percent in Belarus, 49 percent in Cuba and 43 percent in Russia. The Chinese startup also performed well in Syria, Iran, and some African countries such as Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Niger.
China is the place where DeepSeek had the highest market share at roughly 89 percent of the AI market.
Why is DeepSeek so popular in the Global South?
The surge in DeepSeek’s popularity outside of China, according to the report, could be due to restrictions on American services in these countries, or because foreign tech access is limited.
DeepSeek is also the default chatbot on Chinese-made phones from companies like Huawei, the report added.
DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use chatbot on web and mobile, and has also given developers global access to modify and build on its core engine. Its lack of subscription fees has “lowered the barrier for millions of users, especially in price‑sensitive regions,” Microsoft’s report said.
The fact that the platform is open and affordable “allowed DeepSeek to gain traction in markets underserved by Western AI platforms,” the report said.
“DeepSeek’s rise shows that global AI adoption is shaped as much by access and availability as by model quality,” Microsoft wrote.
The report goes on to identify potential consequences of DeepSeek’s popularity in the Global South, including that the technology can act as a “geopolitical instrument” to “extend Chinese influence in areas where Western platforms cannot easily operate.”
Uptake of DeepSeek in North America and Europe remained low, the report said. Some European countries such as Italy, Denmark and the Czech Republic banned government agencies from using DeepSeek models on their devices due to data security and cybersecurity concerns. Local media in Belgium report that government officials stopped using DeepSeek in December.
AI adoption grows twice as fast in Global North than south, Microsoft says
While DeepSeek is popular in the Global South, AI adoption in the Global North is growing nearly twice as fast.
“We are seeing a divide and we are concerned that that divide will continue to widen,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist for Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, told the Associated Press.
The report said global adoption of generative AI tools reached 16 percent of the world’s population in the three months to December, up from 15 percent in the previous three months.
Countries that invested early and consistently in digital infrastructure and AI led in terms of shares of users, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France, and Spain, according to the report.
This finding contradicts a surveydone of over 14,000 people by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in December.
That study found that young Gen Z users in the Global South were adopting AI at faster rates than both older generations and their counterparts in the Global North.