The US Commerce Department is investigating whether Chinese company DeepSeek has been using restricted artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia, a US-based technology giant. This comes amid growing concerns over the country’s lead in AI and its potential loss due to foreign competitors.
DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that became the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store, sparking fears about the US’s dominance in AI research. The company claims its model uses less data at a lower cost than US models, but Nvidia has denied any wrongdoing.
According to reports, DeepSeek may have used Nvidia’s H800 chips, which are banned from being shipped to China. However, Nvidia says that many of its customers use business entities in Singapore to export products to the US and Western countries, complying with applicable laws.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-looking-into-whether-deepseek-used-restricted-ai-chips-source-says-2025-01-31