Since its debut, DeepSeek’s chatbot suffered a major outage of more than seven hours overnight in China, recording its record-longest downtime. This reportedly forced the AI pioneer to deploy several updates to rectify the issue. Users began reporting faults on Sunday evening, according to Downdetector, as per The Times of India.
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An initial issue was acknowledged by the startup’s own status page at 9.35 pm and then marked the incident resolved after two hours. Another case of performance issues that took until 10.33 am to be fixed was reported by subsequent updates. However, the causes of the outages remain unclear, and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
No AI for an entire night
The outage issue for the Chinese startup is unprecedented, primarily since it has maintained close to a 99% operational record since it unveiled the popular R1 in January 2025, according to its status page. The extended downtime is unusual for a globally used app like DeepSeek, which has, for over a year, carried the mantle of China’s breakthrough artificial intelligence service.
The speculation of a major update rollout has surfaced from the beginning of the year, after DeepSeek’s flashy debut on January 20 last year. This introduction to the market of AI prompted local rivals from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to ByteDance Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to release a barrage of new AI models and services over the Lunar New Year holiday.
Anticipation for DeepSeek’s next big move remains high, though the publicity-shy company has kept mum on a timeline, The Times of India reported.
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System outage within update discussions?
DeepSeek is said to be introducing a major system update and the outage comes amid the update rollout speculations, bringing up discussions about current performances and the new update possibilities. However, the startup has not confirmed any timeline for the new update, whereas rival companies like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have already released new AI models. DeepSeek remains silent while the AI market keeps a keen eye on the startup’s next move.
