The revelation that China’s DeepSeek has built a better artificial intelligence (AI) mousetrap than its much richer American counterparts set off a panic among tech investors Monday, causing the Nasdaq index to plummet.

DeepSeek’s success despite Washington’s blockade on high-powered Chinese chips set off a similar freak-out among the ascendant AI barons — who just last week were in Washington cozying up to the political powers during President Trump’s inauguration.

The chest thumping and fist bumping over the Trump administration’s grandly named Project Stargate and its half-trillion-dollar AI investment pledge looked a little ridiculous Monday when a Chinese firm with no such advantages seemed to become an overnight leader in the field.

And there’s reason to freak out. If protectionism is not giving U.S. firms an advantage, maybe America’s technological edge of China will be much shorter than thought, if it still exists at all.

The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began in the middle of the last century.

It was a military matter, since space represented the ultimate high ground from which the newly nuclearized foes could fight. It was also about national pride at........

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