Nvidia refutes report that China's DeepSeek is using its banned Blackwell AI chips

On Wednesday, Nvidia officially dismissed allegations suggesting that the Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been illicitly utilizing its Blackwell chips to create a new model. These advanced chips have been banned from export to China by the U.S. government, part of ongoing efforts to maintain a competitive edge in the artificial intelligence landscape. Reports from The Information indicated that DeepSeek was allegedly using chips that had been smuggled into China. However, a spokesperson for Nvidia stated, "We haven't seen any substantiation or received tips of 'phantom datacenters' constructed to deceive us and our OEM partners, then deconstructed, smuggled, and reconstructed somewhere else. While such smuggling seems farfetched, we pursue any tip we receive." Nvidia has emerged as a significant player in the AI boom, owing to its development of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are essential for training AI models and managing extensive workloads. The implications of Nvidia's relationship with China have become a contentious issue among U.S. lawmakers, especially following comments from President Donald Trump earlier this week. He mentioned that Nvidia could sell its H200 chips to "approved customers" in China and other regions, provided that the U.S. receives 25% of the sales revenue. This statement faced criticism from several Republican lawmakers. DeepSeek created a stir in the U.S. tech industry in January with the launch of its reasoning model, R1, which quickly gained popularity in app stores and industry rankings. Analysts noted that R1 was developed at a significantly lower cost compared to similar models in the U.S. Furthermore, in August, DeepSeek suggested that China would soon unveil its own next-generation chips to bolster its AI capabilities.