By Aditya Soni and Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) -Days after Chinese upstart DeepSeek revealed a breakthrough in cheap AI computing that shook the U.S. technology industry, the chief executives of Microsoft and Meta defended massive spending that they said was key to staying competitive in the new field.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's model led to increased scrutiny on Microsoft's AI spending.

Key tech stocks were a mixed bag in early trading Thursday after executives at Meta and Microsoft said they plan to keep pouring billions of dollars into AI – despite lingering anxiety over the launch of China-based DeepSeek’s AI model.