Beijing rejects US criticism of chip restrictions, calling it politicization of trade and tech issues
\n WASHINGTON
\nChinese AI startup DeepSeek\u2019s latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia\u2019s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday, in what could represent a violation of US export controls.
\nThe US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China.
\nThe person declined to say how the US government received the information or how DeepSeek obtained the chips, but emphasized that US policy is: \u201cwe\u2019re not shipping Blackwells to China\u201d.
\nNVIDIA declined to comment, while the Commerce Department and DeepSeek did not respond to requests for comment.
\nThe Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing opposes \u201cdrawing ideological lines, overstretching the concept of national security, expansive use of export controls and politicizing economic, trade, and technological issues\u201d. Asked about the Reuters report at a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing on Tuesday, spokesperson Mao Ning said they were not aware of the circumstances and that China had earlier repeatedly clarified its stance on Washington\u2019s treatment of US chip exports to China. US government confirmation of DeepSeek obtaining the chips, first reported by Reuters, could further divide Washington policymakers as they struggle to determine where to draw the line on Chinese access to the crown jewels of American AI semiconductor chips.
\nWhite House AI Czar David Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argue that shipping advanced AI chips to China discourages Chinese competitors like Huawei from redoubling efforts to catch up with Nvidia\u2019s and AMD\u2019s technology.
\nBut China hawks fear chips could easily be diverted from commercial uses to help supercharge China\u2019s military and threaten US dominance in AI.
\n\u201cThis shows why exporting any AI chips to China is so dangerous,\u201d said Chris McGuire, who served as a White House National Security Council official under former President Joe Biden. \u201cGiven China\u2019s leading AI companies are brazenly violating US export controls, we obviously cannot expect that they will comply with US conditions that would prohibit them from using chips to support the Chinese military,\u201d he added.
\nUS Concerns
\nUS export controls, overseen by the Commerce Department, currently bar Blackwell shipments to China. In August, US President Donald Trump opened the door to Nvidia selling a scaled-down version of the Blackwell in China. But he later reversed course, suggesting the firm\u2019s most advanced chips should be reserved for US companies and kept out of China.
\nTrump\u2019s decision in December to allow Chinese firms to buy Nvidia\u2019s second-most-advanced chips, known as the H200, drew sharp criticism from China hawks, but shipments of the chips remain stalled over guardrails built into the approvals.
\nRead: US AI giants accuse Chinese rivals of mass data theft
\n\u201cChinese AI companies\u2019 reliance on smuggled Blackwells underscores their massive shortfall of domestically produced AI chips and why approvals of H200 chips would represent a lifeline,\u201d said Saif Khan, who served as director of technology and national security at the White House\u2019s National Security Council under former President Joe Biden.
\nThe official declined to comment on how the latest news would impact the Trump administration\u2019s decision on whether to allow DeepSeek to buy H200s.
\nThe model they helped train likely relied on the \u201cdistillation\u201d of models made by leading-edge US AI companies, including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, echoing allegations made by OpenAI and Anthropic, the official added.
\nThe technique known as distillation involves having an older, more established and powerful AI model evaluate the quality of the answers coming out of a newer model, effectively transferring the older model\u2019s learnings.
\nHangzhou-based DeepSeek shook markets early last year with a set of AI models that rivaled some of the best offerings from the US, fueling concerns in Washington that China could catch up in the AI race despite restrictions.
\nThe Information previously reported that DeepSeek had smuggled chips into China to train its next model. Reuters is reporting for the first time on the US government\u2019s confirmation of the chips\u2019 use for that purpose in DeepSeek\u2019s Inner Mongolia-based facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing rejects US criticism of chip restrictions, calling it politicization of trade and tech issues WASHINGTON Chinese AI startup DeepSeek\u2019s latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia\u2019s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday, in what could represent a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-533349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n