Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips that are banned in the country to develop an upcoming AI model, according to a new report in The Information. Nvidia’s Blackwell chips were smuggled into China via countries that permitted their sale, the report said, citing anonymous sources. The report said that servers containing the chips were dismantled before arriving in China. A representative for DeepSeek didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. DeepSeek drew global attention in January when it debuted an AI model that was competitive with Silicon Valley’s best at a fraction of the cost. The startup was funded by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, which had amassed 10,000 Nvidia GPUs in 2021, prior to US bans on exports of sophisticated Nvidia chips and other graphics processing units.

Full report : China’s DeepSeek Uses Banned Nvidia Chips for AI Model.