Will the US respond to AI rivals in the same way it took on Soviet Union in the space race?

DeepSeek’s launch of the R1 AI model was a significant moment in the battle for tech superiority. Photograph: Riccardo Milani/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images In January, Chinese technology company DeepSeek launched its R1 AI model. Billed as equivalent in capability to market leader OpenAI's ChatGPT, but much cheaper, it soared to the top of download charts. In the United States, a spooked market quickly moved money out of tech. Tech giant Nvidia had surged to a market capitalisation of $1 trillion, $2 trillion and then $3 trillion on the back of the AI boom, but saw billions wiped off its…