Nvidia calls report of China’s DeepSeek using banned Blackwell chips ‘far-fetched’

On Wednesday, US chipmaker Nvidia said a report claiming that Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek is using its banned Blackwell chips to develop its upcoming AI model seemed “far-fetched,” as the company stressed it has not seen any proof of such activity.

CNBC reported, citing a spokesperson from Nvidia saying, “We haven’t seen any substantiation or received tips of ‘phantom data centres’ constructed to deceive us and our [original equipment manufacturer] partners, then deconstructed, smuggled and reconstructed somewhere else.”

The spokesperson added that while such smuggling seems “far-fetched”, the company will pursue any tip they receive.

The response came after The Information reported that DeepSeek had been working with the chipmaker’s newer Blackwell chips that were allegedly smuggled into China.

While US President Donald Trump gave his approval that Nvidia can now sell its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China on Monday, he specified that its newer Blackwell and Rubin chips are not part of the deal. /TISG

Read also: Meta sets up 4 ‘war rooms’ to tackle DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough as Zuckerberg plans S$87.9B investment

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