Despite a US prohibition, an official claims that China's DeepSeek trained an AI model on Nvidia's top processor

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is preparing to release a new artificial intelligence model as early as next week, but US officials allege it may have been trained using Nvidia’s most advanced AI chip, raising concerns of a potential export control violation.

A senior official in the Trump administration said on Monday that the model was trained on Nvidia’s Blackwell chips — the latest generation of high-performance AI processors that Washington has restricted from being shipped to China. The official added that US policy is clear: “We’re not shipping Blackwells to China,” suggesting that DeepSeek’s access to the chips could breach export regulations.

The official also said the US government believes DeepSeek would remove technical indicators that might reveal the use of American AI chips in training the model. However, no details were provided on how US authorities obtained the information.

Nvidia declined to comment on the matter. The US Commerce Department and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing opposes “drawing ideological lines, overstretching the concept of national security, expansive use of export controls and politicizing economic, trade, and technological issues.”

The revelation, which has not been previously reported, risks intensifying divisions among policymakers in Washington as they debate how far to restrict China’s access to advanced American semiconductor technology — widely regarded as the crown jewels of the AI race.