Chinese technology company DeepSeek is reportedly now developing its own artificial intelligence chip amid the technological arms race.
DeepSeek’s chip is being crafted for inference, which refers to the phase of AI in which trained models generate replies to users’ questions, rather than for creating new models, Reuters first reported Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources. The news comes as almost every leading AI company worldwide is reportedly moving to create custom chips as part of a broader effort to gain a competitive advantage through hardware tailored to bolster the performance of their AI models, Bloomberg reported.
DeepSeek did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The move may potentially decrease DeepSeek’s dependence on using processors from California-based technology giant Nvidia and Chinese tech company Huawei.
Over the last month, government officials in China have held discussions with several major technology companies about possibly imposing restrictions on overseas access to the country’s most advanced AI models, including unreleased ones, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources.
In May, Nvidia unveiled a new “superchip” aiming to reinvent “Windows PCs for the era of personal AI agents — offering a new class of computer that moves from tool to teammate.” Moreover, Amazon’s devices chief Panos Panay told CNBC on July 2 that the tech company is producing its own AI chips for Echo, Fire TV and other future products.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told BBC News in September 2025 that he felt “disappointed” that China had reportedly told its leading tech companies to stop buying Nvidia’s AI chips. Huang also told the outlet that he believes the U.S. needs “to make sure that people can access this technology from all over the world, including China.”
In January 2025, the AI startup company drew global attention after the release of its mobile chatbot application and the large language model DeepSeek-R1. DeepSeek-R1 notably climbed to the top of the charts of the most downloaded and active AI models on the AI open-source platform Hugging Face just hours after it was launched, according to IBM.
DeepSeek notched over $7.4 billion in its first funding round, pushing its valuation to more than $50 billion, The Information reported in June.
A House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) report published in April 2025 claims that DeepSeek’s AI model “funnels Americans’ data to the [People’s Republic of China (PCR)] through backend infrastructure connected to a U.S. government-designated Chinese military company.”
“DeepSeek covertly manipulates the results it presents to align with CCP propaganda, as required by Chinese law,” the report alleges.
Some people have also raised concerns related to DeepSeek’s data collection and usage policy, according to Carleton College.
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