Luchen Technology Becomes First to Drop DeepSeek API Over Cost Concerns
AI infrastructure provider Luchen Technology has officially announced it will discontinue its support for DeepSeek’s API, marking the first major firm to take such action due to financial constraints. The decision, announced on March 1, mandates a halt to services within a week and advises users to utilize their remaining balances. This move follows recent reports indicating that DeepSeek achieved a theoretical profit margin of 545% for its online system, raising questions about pricing sustainability for third-party providers. Although Luchen Technology has not released a detailed public statement, industry insiders suggest that high operational costs are the primary driver. Third-party Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) providers reportedly struggle to match the low costs maintained by DeepSeek’s official channels, despite the latter open-sourcing many inference components. You Yang, founder of Luchen Technology, has publicly criticized DeepSeek’s cost structure, highlighting the significant financial pressure placed on smaller cloud infrastructure companies. This development underscores the growing economic tensions within the AI sector as competitors navigate the balance between open-source accessibility and commercial viability.
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Luchen Technology Becomes First to Drop DeepSeek API Over Cost Concerns
AI infrastructure provider Luchen Technology has officially announced it will discontinue its support for DeepSeek’s API, marking the first major firm to take such action due to financial constraints. The decision, announced on March 1, mandates a halt to services within a week and advises users to utilize their remaining balances. This move follows recent reports indicating that DeepSeek achieved a theoretical profit margin of 545% for its online system, raising questions about pricing sustainability for third-party providers. Although Luchen Technology has not released a detailed public statement, industry insiders suggest that high operational costs are the primary driver. Third-party Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) providers reportedly struggle to match the low costs maintained by DeepSeek’s official channels, despite the latter open-sourcing many inference components. You Yang, founder of Luchen Technology, has publicly criticized DeepSeek’s cost structure, highlighting the significant financial pressure placed on smaller cloud infrastructure companies. This development underscores the growing economic tensions within the AI sector as competitors navigate the balance between open-source accessibility and commercial viability.
TechNode