By Sinéad Carew, Amanda Cooper and Ankur Banerjee LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Investors made a quick exit from a host of technology stocks from Tokyo to New York on Monday as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model challenged the dominance of current AI leaders such as Nvidia .

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is shifting his focus away from investments in China and toward the US, as seen with his involvement with President Donald Trump and the recently announced Stargate.

A small group of seven companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, have become so dominant that they alone contributed to more than half of the S&P 500’s

Investors sold technology stocks across the globe as they worried that the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model would threaten the dominance of current leaders.

Shares of Japanese chip-related firms were feeling the heat on Monday. Today’s slump comes as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek gained traction with its updated AI model, raising fears about potential challenges to US technological dominance.

Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan on Monday as surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model wobbled investors' faith in the profitability of AI and the sector's voracious demand for high-tech chips.

Chinese startup DeepSeek has shaken the belief that only a few firms with huge budgets can compete in the artificial intelligence field — potentially challenging an investment case that rewarded the biggest players with rich valuations.

Investors will be looking out for Malaysia’s central bank policy meeting today, where it’s expected to keep its policy rate steady at 3%.

World shares are mixed after China rolled out more moves to boost its lagging stock markets. Hong Kong fell while Shanghai's benchmark gained 0.5%. Officials in Beijing said pension funds

In international markets, chipmaking and electrification companies saw pressure on the fears over the DeepSeek AI service. SoftBank -- the company that said it would fund up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure as well as the main shareholder of microchip designer ARM -- saw its stock dive 8%.

The partnership formed by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank is due to invest up to $500 billion. SoftBank's shares rose 3.7% on Thursday in Tokyo trading after jumping 11% the day before. Elsewhere in Asia, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 0.6% to 8,383.50, while the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.8% to 2,526.98.

What is DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company whose R1 chatbot upended stock markets and fueled debates on economic and geopolitical competition?