Nvidia experienced a staggering $600 billion drop in market value, leading to a sharp decline in the wealth of some of the world’s richest individuals, including its CEO, Jensen Huang. This selloff, triggered by DeepSeek’s affordable challenge to U.S. AI dominance, also caused the Nasdaq index to plummet by 3%.

Nvidia’s historic stock decline, reportedly the largest market value loss in U.S. history according to Bloomberg, resulted in Huang losing $20.7 billion of his fortune. The co-founder and largest individual shareholder of Nvidia saw his net worth fall from $124.4 billion to $103.7 billion by Monday evening. Forbes’ real-time billionaires list now places the 61-year-old at 17th globally, behind figures like Zara’s Amancio Ortega, Walmart heirs Rob, Jim, and Alice Walton, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chairman, faced even steeper losses, with his fortune shrinking by $27.6 billion as Oracle’s shares fell 14%. This drop pushed Ellison from third to fifth place on the wealthiest individuals list, now trailing Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault.

Other notable figures impacted by the tech selloff include Michael Dell ($12.4 billion loss), Google co-founders Larry Page ($6.3 billion) and Sergey Brin ($5.9 billion), Tesla’s Elon Musk ($5.3 billion), and Interactive Brokers chairman Thomas Peterffy ($4.1 billion). In total, tech magnates collectively lost $94 billion, roughly 85% of the $108 billion tied to Nvidia and DeepSeek’s market turmoil, as reported by Bloomberg.

This market dip precedes critical earnings reports this week from major players like Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple. Analysts anticipate executives will face tough questions regarding their multi-billion-dollar investments in AI. The tech giants, dubbed the "magnificent seven"—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—saw approximately $1 trillion erased from their combined $17 trillion valuation.

Despite the chaos, some experts argue the selloff is an overreaction. Tech analyst Gene Munster shared on X that demand for high-performance AI hardware remains strong, as organizations prioritize speed over cost in achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). “DeepSeek doesn’t change that dynamic,” he noted.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon urged investors to avoid succumbing to panic. “The weekend’s concerns seem exaggerated,” Rasgon commented in a note to clients, emphasizing that the doomsday scenarios circulating are overstated.

Speculation about DeepSeek’s $5.6 million budget for developing its R1 model may also be inaccurate. Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI, claimed on CNBC that Chinese labs likely have more of Nvidia’s $30,000 H100 chips than previously estimated—possibly up to $1 billion worth. Wang also noted that while DeepSeek’s current resources may be extensive, future growth could be restricted by U.S. export controls on advanced chips.

The unfolding developments highlight the high stakes and competitive nature of the global AI race, with DeepSeek’s emergence introducing new uncertainties into the market.