(Yicai) Feb. 5 -- Shares in Merit Interactive soared by the exchange-imposed limit today even though the Chinese data service provider clarified yesterday that it does not hold any shares in artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, whose AI assistant recently ousted ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the Apple Store.

Merit’s share price [SHE:300766] closed up 20 percent at CNY28.92 (USD4) today, the first day of trading after the eight-day Chinese New Year break. It started to soar last month after the successful launch of the large language model DeepSeek and also hit limit up on Jan. 27, the last day of trading before the holiday began.

Merit is not a stakeholder in DeepSeek and its affiliate High-Flyer, and has never provided datasets to DeepSeek, said the Hangzhou-based company, which specializes in combining its data services such as Internet operation, brand marketing and financial risk control with clients’ industry ‘Know-How.’

However, Merit did say that its business is closely tied to Hangzhou-based DeepSeek and that it was using the DeepSeek model in its daily business before it became famous. Merit also said that a founding member of the company is an important shareholder in High-Flyer, but it did not give the name of the person.

The potential impact of DeepSeek's AI assistant on Merit’s performance depends on how Merit uses the model to develop smart digital products and how they are received in the industry, it said. There is a degree of uncertainty, it added.

Merit will embrace the open technology ecosystem of the DeepSeek LLM, give full play to the company's own technological and market advantages, create value in the vertical application of large models in industrial scenarios and provide good service support for developers, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor