Source: The Next Web
DeepSeek is using dramatic pricing—75% off V4-Pro and cache costs cut to 10% of previous rates—to force incumbent AI labs into a margin squeeze they can't easily match without cannibalizing their own revenue models. This isn't a temporary promotion but a structural repositioning that makes DeepSeek's inference economics competitive with OpenAI and Anthropic at scale, which matters because API pricing has been one of the last strongholds where Western labs maintained differentiation. The May 2026 end date signals this is a calculated land grab: DeepSeek is betting that lock-in effects and developer momentum will stick around after prices normalize.