DeepSeek Spurs Black Market Demand for Nvidia Gaming Chips in China

When DeepSeek’s success in developing competitive artificial intelligence models at a low cost prompted a $750 billion sell-off in Nvidia shares in late January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wasn’t worried. He told some employees a few days later that DeepSeek had just become Nvidia’s most important customer in China, since any progress in AI will only increase demand for the company’s chips, according to a person who heard his remarks.

Demand for Nvidia chips in China has been soaring in the last several weeks, but not necessarily in the way Huang predicted. DeepSeek’s skyrocketing popularity has boosted demand for Nvidia’s gaming chips in the underground market as tech firms realize they can run DeepSeek’s models at a fraction of the price of AI chips, according to five chip smugglers.