After introducing the concept of model commoditization and why DeepSeek might preview a commoditized world, this article explores commoditization’s (1) consequences for industry and (2) new challenges for regulators, as well as new windows of opportunity that it might present. DeepSeek’s V3 base model and recently announced R1 reasoning models captured market attention because they found inexpensive new ways to train models that rival far more costly products from firms like OpenAI. In a commoditized model world, the AI world’s picks and shovels—the underlying tools and technology required to train, tune, and deploy models—will command a greater share of the pie.