DeepSeek Trains Next AI Model on Thousands of Smuggled Nvidia Blackwell Chips
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, fresh off its cheap V3 model that shook things up earlier this year, is now training its next big one with several thousand banned Nvidia Blackwell chips. That’s according to Sherwood News reporting on The Information, which spoke to six people in the know.
These Blackwell chips aren’t supposed to reach China due to US export rules. Instead, they sneak in bit by bit—servers get taken apart overseas, chips pulled out, and shipped piecemeal. Nvidia told Bloomberg they chase down any smuggling tips they get, even if it sounds unlikely.
Quick Background on DeepSeek’s Past Claims
DeepSeek publicly said its V3 model ran on Nvidia H800 GPUs. But industry folks suspected they had better hardware, sparking White House and FBI probes into chip smuggling. Recently, the Trump admin approved sales of Nvidia’s H200 Hopper chips to China, though Blackwell stayed off the table during talks with Xi.
- DeepSeek’s next model: several thousand Blackwell chips (via MarketScreener and MarketScreener India, both citing The Information).
- Investing.com reports the same.
- Smuggling example: Singapore charged men earlier this year for fraudulently shipping Nvidia servers through Malaysia, likely headed to China.
DeepSeek hasn’t commented on the Blackwell story yet.
