Ask HN: Are the tariffs a retaliation after China ruined AI companies profits?

After years of investment and billions spent, any chance of U.S. companies profiting _wildly _from AI has been destroyed by China's open-source models—especially those like DeepSeek.

I don't mean existing closed models aren't useful anymore, but realistically, 90% (or even more) of what can be accomplished with a proprietary model can now be done with an open-source alternative.

This has clearly devastated profit expectations, and investors—who poured money into speculative AI ventures—should be furious. (Think about all money that has being spent so far and remember about R$500 billion investment announcement by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank)

Could this have been triggered the retaliation into tariffs from the U.S. against China, after they have been destroyed the most prominent and speculative profit market ever created?