China’s DeepSeek trained AI model on Nvidia’s best chip despite US ban, official says

WASHINGTON, USA, February 25 ------ Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior Trump administration official said, in what could represent a violation of US export controls.

The US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The person declined to say how the US government received the information or how DeepSeek obtained the chips, but emphasized that US policy is:” we’re not shipping Blackwells to China.” NVIDIA declined to comment, while the Commerce Department and DeepSeek did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing opposes “drawing ideological lines, overstretching the concept of national security, expansive use of export controls and politicizing economic, trade, and technological issues.” Asked about the Reuters report at a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing on Tuesday, spokesperson Mao Ning said they were not aware of the circumstances and that China had earlier repeatedly clarified its stance on Washington’s treatment of US chip exports to China.

US government confirmation of DeepSeek obtaining the chips, first reported by Reuters, could further divide Washington policymakers as they struggle to determine where to draw the line on Chinese access to the crown jewels of American AI semiconductor chips. White House AI Czar David Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argue that shipping advanced AI chips to China discourages Chinese competitors like Huawei from redoubling efforts to catch up with Nvidia’s and AMD’s technology. But China hawks fear chips could easily be diverted from commercial uses to help supercharge China’s military and threaten U.S. dominance in AI.

“This shows why exporting any AI chips to China is so dangerous,” said Chris McGuire, who served as a White House National Security Council official under former President Joe Biden. “Given China’s leading AI companies are brazenly violating US export controls, we obviously cannot expect that they will comply with US conditions that would prohibit them from using chips to support the Chinese military,” he added.

Source: rappler.com