DeepSeek shot to artificial intelligence stardom early this year by using Nvidia chips to train its models. It’s now moving on to embrace Chinese chips. In a one-line WeChat note this week, the Hangzhou-based start-up said its new V3.1 model was specifically designed “for home-grown chips to be released soon”. While DeepSeek didn’t specify the manufacturer of these new chips, local developers like Huawei Technologies have been working to adapt their processors to run Chinese open-source AI models, including those from DeepSeek. Some people have even speculated that the start-up is delaying the launch of the highly anticipated successor to its R1 reasoning model, tentatively called R2, due to challenges training it with Huawei’s Ascend chips. DeepSeek had faced "persistent technical issues” during the process, said a recent Financial Times report, citing an unidentified source. Recent developments, however, suggested that DeepSeek may forgo releasing the R2 model. According to the company, V3.1 combines both reasoning and non-reasoning features into a single tool. The model could deliver answers more quickly than R1 without compromising reasoning capabilities, DeepSeek said. DeepSeek’s bold claim about the impending arrival of “next-generation” Chinese chips comes after voices of doubt grew louder about Nvidia’s H20 processors. The country now required its data centres to source more than half of their chips from domestic producers, sources told the Post. While Nvidia finds itself in the centre of trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies, Huawei appears to be getting increasingly confident about its years-long efforts to boost self-sufficiency. For the first time in five years, the US-sanctioned company has divulged the secret chip powering its latest generation of smartphones. In a recent system update, the firm revealed that its Pura 80 handsets were equipped with the Kirin 9020 system-on-a-chip, designed by its in-house semiconductor design unit HiSilicon. First seen in last year’s Mate 70 smartphones, the Kirin 9020 is made by China’s largest contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, using the advanced 7-nanometre production process, according to previous Techinsights research. To promote the custom chip design services of its HiSilicon subsidiary, Huawei has opened an account on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. Huawei’s achievements indicate that US tech restrictions may not be as effective in impeding China’s AI advances as Washington intended. https://www.scmp.com/tech.. #🇨🇳 ChinA.I. 🤖🧠🦾🤖