DeepSeek is Using Banned Nvidia Chips in Race to Build Next Model

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has been developing its next major model using several thousand Nvidia’s state-of-the-art Blackwell chips which the U.S. has forbidden from being exported to China, according to six people with knowledge of the matter.

The chips DeepSeek is using were smuggled into China, the people said, through a convoluted scheme that involves sending them to data centers in countries that are allowed to buy them, and then dismantling the servers containing the chips and importing the equipment in pieces to China.