U.S. stock futures steadied, the dollar ticked higher and tech stocks in Asia slid in jittery trade on Tuesday, as advances by a Chinese AI startup have cast doubt on U.S. dominance and spending in one of the market's hottest sectors.

Stock futures are pointing to a mixed open for major indexes Tuesday as the market steadies itself after yesterday's sharp downturn.

Chinese startup DeepSeek has rolled out a free assistant it says uses lower-cost chips and less data, seemingly challenging a widespread bet in financial markets that AI will drive demand along a supply chain from chipmakers to data centers.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures steadied on Tuesday after steep losses in the previous session driven by the popularity of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model that rattled stocks of U.S. companies invested in the technology.