The US suspected DeepSeek of obtaining Nvidia chips through Singapore

The U.S. suspected the developer of Chinese chatbot DeepSeek of receiving Nvidia chips through Singapore, which could mean evading U .S. export controls. Bloomberg reported this on January 31, citing sources.

"Nvidia chips, which they have purchased by the tons, having found ways to bypass this (the imposed restriction. - Ed.) are at the heart of their DeepSeek model," the agency quotes Howard Lutnick, a candidate for the post of head of the Ministry of Commerce, as saying.

He also noted that DeepSeek could evade U.S. export controls. In his opinion, if the company intends to compete, it should do so without using Western tools.

The White House and FBI are also trying to find out whether DeepSeek used intermediaries to buy Nvidia chips.

According to the agency, Microsoft and OpenAI have also launched an investigation into DeepSeek for allegedly illegally accessing data from artificial intelligence (AI) developer ChatGPT. Microsoft found that large amounts of data were illegally downloaded using OpenAI's application programming interface (API). OpenAI also suspected DeepSeek of using the company's model to train its chatbot.

The DeepSeek platform is developed by a company of the same name, which was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou. It is owned by High-Flyer, a Chinese hedge fund focused on using AI to develop algorithms for securities trading. The chatbot is available to users around the world in both mobile app and web page formats.

Earlier, on January 13, the U.S. announced new restrictions on the spread of AI technologies in order to protect the country's interests and national security. With regard to some countries, the US imposed restrictions on the transfer of more powerful AI models and a ban on the supply of advanced chips to the countries. These include Russia, China, Belarus, DPRK, Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cuba, DRC, Eritrea, Cuba, DRC, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Somalia, CAR, Syria, Somalia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe.