US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the recent US stock market decline is linked to the emergence of Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, not President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Bessent said, “This market decline started with the Chinese AI announcement of DeepSeek.”

He pointed to the launch of DeepSeek’s AI model earlier this year, which triggered a major drop in Nvidia shares, part of the tech-heavy “Magnificent 7.”

The Magnificent 7 stocks, which had previously driven market gains, have been under pressure since DeepSeek’s January debut.

The startup offered a new AI model at a lower cost than existing services, leading to a record one-day loss of nearly US$600 billion in Nvidia’s market value.

This week, US stocks fell about 10% after Trump’s new global tariff regime announcement. Analysts cited inflation concerns and a potential economic slowdown flagged by the Federal Reserve.