EMJ Capital President and founder Eric Jackson analyzes tough A.I. competition, the future of Stargate and cryptocurrency cybersecurity under the Trump administration.
U.S. officials are investigating whether Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek, whose latest models sent the tech world into a frenzy this week, has been using advanced Nvidia semiconductors that are restricted from being shipped to China, according to multiple reports.
DeepSeek’s release of new AI models that it claims rival those made by leading U.S. tech firms but at a fraction of the cost roiled markets on Monday and prompted concerns about American firms losing their edge in the AI race to Chinese rivals.
A chatbot app developed by the Chinese AI company DeepSeek (Getty Images / Getty Images)
Reuters reported that, according to a person familiar, the Commerce Department is now probing whether DeepSeek was able to access AI chips that the U.S. has banned from Chinese access, adding that chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Bloomberg also reported that the department is investigating whether DeepSeek was able to access high-performance Nvidia chips through third parties in Singapore.
TECH MOGUL DOUBTS DEEPSEEK CLAIMS, SAYS US MEDIA FELL FOR ‘CCP PROPAGANDA’
An Nvidia spokesperson told FOX Business that many of its customers have business entities in Singapore and use those entities for products destined for the U.S. and the west.
The U.S. Commerce Department is reportedly probing whether DeepSeek accessed Nvidia chips prohibited for use in China.
“Our public filings report ‘bill to’ not ‘ship to’ locations of our customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement. ” We insist that our partners comply with all applicable laws, and if we receive any information to the contrary, act accordingly.”
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment. DeepSeek was unable to be reached for comment.
NVIDIA CEO JENSES HUANG TO MEET WITH TRUMP AT WHITE HOUSE
The reports come as President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the White House on Friday.
Huang and Trump are expected to discuss AI, as well as chips and the power needed to train AI models and semiconductor manufacturing facilities.
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., holds up the company’s AI accelerator chips for data centers. (Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
DeepSeek has said it used Nvidia’s H800 chips, which it could have legally purchased in 2023. Reuters could not determine whether DeepSeek has used other controlled chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China.
DeepSeek also apparently has Nvidia’s less powerful H20s, which can still lawfully be shipped to China. The U.S. considered controlling them under the Biden administration and newly appointed Trump officials are discussing that as well.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
The CEO of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, said earlier this week, “it appears that a substantial fraction of DeepSeek’s AI chip fleet consists of chips that haven’t been banned (but should be), chips that were shipped before they were banned; and some that seem very likely to have been smuggled.”
The U.S. has put in place a raft of restrictions barring exports of AI chips to China and plans to cap their shipments to a host of other countries.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Reuters contributed to this report.
