AI giant and GPU maker Nvidia has issued a strong response following claims that it provided technical assistance to DeepSeek to improve its training efficiency. The company said it would be "nonsensical" for China's military to depend on American technology, following a Reuters report on a letter sent to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
In a statement of response provided to Tom's Hardware, Nvidia said, "China has more than enough domestic chips for all of its military applications, with millions to spare. Just like it would be nonsensical for the American military to use Chinese technology, it makes no sense for the Chinese military to depend on American technology."
Nvidia further stated, "The Administration's critics are unintentionally promoting the interests of foreign competitors--America should always want its industry to compete for vetted and approved commercial businesses, and thereby protecting national security, creating American jobs, and keeping America's lead in AI."
The company's statement doesn't directly address the specific allegations made by Moolenaar of technical assistance. It also does not address the claims in the letter, which specifically state that DeepSeek-V3 was training using Nvidia H800 chips, which is further outlined in DeepSeek's V-3 Technical Report.
The original report, citing a breakthrough in efficiency gains training DeepSeek-V3, claims that Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, wrote a letter to Lutnick claiming that "documents obtained by the committee from Nvidia showed the achievement came after extensive technical assistance from Nvidia."
Specifically, the letter purportedly states that "According to NVIDIA records, NVIDIA technology development personnel helped DeepSeek achieve major training efficiency gains through an 'optimized co-design of algorithms, frameworks, and hardware." It further claims that an internal report boasted of a significant improvement in GPU hours required for full training of DeepSeek-V3, specifically using just 2.788M H800 GPU hours.
The report claims that models honed with the help of Nvidia were "later used by the Chinese military." According to Reuters, the documents pertain to activities from 2024, and Moolenaar admitted that at the time the alleged assistance was provided, there was no public indication that China's military was using DeepSeek's technology. "Nvidia treated DeepSeek accordingly - as a legitimate commercial partner deserving of standard technical support," is said to have written.
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Nvidia has previously spoken against export controls against its chips, arguing that China could even "win the AI race" as a result of such measures and the country's favorable energy infrastructure.
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