** Citi sees the threat of lower spending arising from China's DeepSeek and an absence of new contracts to weigh on NextDC'sNXT.AX share price

** Brokerage cuts PT on data centre landlord to A$18.70 from A$20.00. NXT closed at A$14.74 on Tuesday

** Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services

** The key concern/question is whether DeepSeek's algorithmic and engineering improvements have changed the long term demand for compute - Citi

** Brokerage also calls a lack of large contract announcements a key reason for share price weakness

** 15 analysts rate the stock "buy" or higher; their median PT is A$20.00 – LSEG data

** Stock down 2.2% this year, as of last close

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru)

((Aaditya.govindrao@thomsonreuters.com;))