Research Says Chinese AI Models Trained on Banned Nvidia Blackwell Chips as 2 Million Accelerators Reached China
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Nov 13
Research Says Chinese AI Models Trained on Banned Nvidia Blackwell Chips as 2 Million Accelerators Reached China
3 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Nov 13
Summary
Unemployment Labs said weight analysis of open models from DeepSeek, Moonshot, MiniMax and Ant Group shows fingerprints of Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, which the US bars from export to China.
Will DePue said chip configurations remain visible in model weights, and pointed to Moonshot’s Kimi K3 releases and DeepSeek V4 models as the clearest Blackwell-linked cases.
Epoch AI estimates about 2 million advanced chips entered China in 2024 and 2025 through concealment schemes, while 275,000 Nvidia AI accelerators were imported to Malaysia—an offshore route Chinese firms use to access compute.
The findings deepen pressure on Nvidia after Jensen Huang’s exit and allegations tied to Megaspeed and Alice Huang, as US investigators also scrutinize whether export controls are failing to stop Chinese access to top-end chips.