Leading Chinese AI models reportedly carry evidence of training on Nvidia Blackwell chips, hardware barred from export to China and Chinese-owned firms. TechCrunch reported that researcher Will DePue identified those traces in models including DeepSeek’s V4 models and Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, in a report published on November 12.
DePue, a former OpenAI researcher leading the nonprofit Unemployment Labs, examined openly released models from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax and Ant Group. The findings do not establish that training relied entirely on Nvidia hardware or that export restrictions were broken, because the chips could have operated in overseas data centers.
What the Research Found
The analysis examined model weights, the distinctive structures of large language models, which retain traces of the hardware configurations used during training. DePue claims those traces provide compelling evidence of Blackwell use in some of the Chinese models attracting the closest attention.
White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios separately said earlier this year that Moonshot had used restricted Nvidia chips, citing intelligence gathered by the United States. The export restrictions aim to preserve the United States’ advantage in AI capabilities over China.
Overseas Access Complicates Controls
Chinese companies have also accessed computing capacity through data centers outside China, with Malaysia becoming a destination for that infrastructure. Epoch AI, a nonprofit research group, estimates that Malaysia imported 275,000 Nvidia AI accelerators across 2024 and 2025.
Separately, Epoch AI estimates that roughly two million advanced chips reached China during those two years through arrangements that concealed their ultimate destination. Advocates of tougher restrictions have sought controls covering the users of chips, alongside rules governing ownership and installation locations.
The Trump administration permits exports of Nvidia’s less powerful H200 chip under arrangements requiring an indirect shipping route that lets the United States collect a 25% tariff. U.S. companies currently face limited requirements to monitor how customers use controlled products such as AI chips.
China objected on Friday to additional semiconductor export restrictions, while House Speaker Mike Johnson said support was growing in Congress for tighter chip controls. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Friday CNBC interview that the Commerce Department bore responsibility for leaving Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed off the Entity List, which would limit its access to American technology.
Bessent said the Treasury, Defense and State departments, along with the U.S. trade representative, had supported listing Megaspeed. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to appear before the Senate Banking Committee on December 10, a U.S. official told CBS News.
