DeepSeek Goes Out for 10 Hours Amid China’s AI Demand Surge
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Speculation among developers for the DeepSeek outage ranges from a system update ahead of a rumored new model release to backend architectural adjustments or simply an inability to handle a sudden user surge. Photo: IC Photo
A more than 10-hour service outage for Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek’s chatbot services has fueled speculation about the pressures facing the country’s AI sector as it contends with a massive surge in user demand.
On Sunday evening, users began reporting on social media that DeepSeek’s web- and app-based chatbot services were unavailable. The disruption lasted for more than 10 hours before being restored on Monday morning, according to tests by Caixin.
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- DeepSeek's chatbot services suffered a 10-hour outage, its second disruption in 60 days, amid rising AI demand in China.
- China’s average daily AI token calls topped 140 trillion by March 2024, a 1,000-fold surge from early 2024.
- The AI sector is under pressure as companies throttle services, raise prices, and struggle with user surges driven by interest in new agents like OpenClaw.
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Who’s Who
- DeepSeek
- DeepSeek is a Chinese AI startup. Its chatbot services experienced a more than 10-hour outage, fueling speculation about the pressures on China's AI sector due to surging user demand. This was DeepSeek's second outage in 60 days, possibly due to a system update, backend adjustments, or inability to handle a user surge.
- MiniMax
- MiniMax is a Chinese AI startup. Its head of developer relations, Li Yuan, commented on the necessity of a paid model for AI agents that consume many tokens. MiniMax previously experienced higher-than-expected traffic for their new model, leading them to implement dynamic throttling during peak hours.
- Moonshot AI
- Moonshot AI, known for its Kimi assistant, has experienced considerably lengthened wait times for free users. This increase in demand follows the rise of AI agents like OpenClaw, placing significant pressure on AI model providers in China. A source from Moonshot AI noted a notable increase in subscriptions due to this boom.
- Zhipu AI
- Zhipu AI is a Chinese artificial intelligence company. The article mentions that their programming packages have either experienced price increases or sold out due to a surge in AI usage and demand. This indicates their involvement in providing AI services and that their offerings are popular in the burgeoning Chinese AI market.
- Alibaba Cloud
- Alibaba Cloud's Bailian platform has experienced either price increases or sold out programming packages. This is occurring amidst a significant surge in AI usage in China, which has significantly increased demand for AI services and put pressure on model providers to maintain stability.
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What Happened When
- March 5, 2026：
- DeepSeek experienced a 40-minute outage, the first major recorded service disruption in 60 days.
- March 19, 2026：
- MiniMax announced implementation of dynamic throttling during peak hours for its new model, citing unusually high traffic.
- March 24, 2026：
- Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, stated that China’s average daily token calls had exceeded 140 trillion, representing significant growth in AI usage.
- Evening of March 29, 2026：
- Users began reporting on social media that DeepSeek's web- and app-based chatbot services were unavailable.
- 9:35 p.m. March 29, 2026：
- DeepSeek began investigating the outage, as reflected on its website monitoring page.
- Shortly after midnight, March 30, 2026：
- DeepSeek briefly restored service, but the service went down again soon after.
- 10:33 a.m. March 30, 2026：
- DeepSeek fully resolved the service outage, restoring all chatbot services.
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