DeepSeek vs OpenAI: The Price War Shaking Up the AI Industry

Why are companies like Vercel and Lindy switching from OpenAI and Anthropic to Chinese models like DeepSeek and GLM? The answer is simple: they cost up to 90% less with nearly identical performance.

In just six months, traffic to Chinese models on OpenRouter went from 4.5% to 46% at peak times. We analyze the data behind this disruption, how real the quality differences are (spoiler: there’s a 6–9 month technology gap that doesn’t matter for 90% of use cases), and what’s at stake geopolitically when you depend on Chinese AI infrastructure for your business.

If you’re making decisions about which AI model to use for your company or project, this episode is essential listening. Subscribe to Capital de Tokens so you don’t miss the next episode, and tell us in the comments which model you’re using today.

🤖 AI-generated content: the script, voices, and images for this episode were produced using artificial intelligence tools.

📷 Images:

• “Quantum Computing for Google Goggles” — jurvetson (CC BY 2.0) — https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/4171280876
• “Cyberdyne Systems” — jurvetson (CC BY 2.0) — https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/9848225175
• “Technology council discusses social media” — U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CC BY 2.0) — https://www.flickr.com/photos/34402227@N03/4424991948
• “DSCF1829” — NeoSpire (CC BY 2.0) — https://www.flickr.com/photos/39131599@N06/3594831417
• “Churchill Club Top 10 Tech Trends Debate” — jurvetson (CC BY 2.0) — https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/5760456067

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