DeepSeek Races to Build Its Own AI Chips, Cutting Ties With Nvidia and Huawei

DeepSeek is racing to develop its own AI chips after spending a year recruiting engineers and meeting with hardware partners, aiming to break free from dependence on both Nvidia and Huawei as Chinese and American AI giants alike pursue custom silicon for greater control over their technology.

• Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is actively developing its own data center inference chips, having spent about a year meeting with hardware partners and hiring engineers for the project.
• The move aims to reduce DeepSeek's dependency on both Nvidia, which is blocked from the Chinese market by US export controls, and Huawei, which currently dominates roughly half of China's data center chip market.
• DeepSeek is not alone in this push, as Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu are making similar moves, while US AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are also pursuing custom chip designs to gain greater control over their tech stacks.