DeepSeek reportedly trained next model on Nvidia Blackwell chips despite US export ban

DeepSeek trained its latest AI model on Nvidia's most powerful Blackwell chips, according to a senior Trump administration official cited by Reuters. The chips are believed to be in a data center in Inner Mongolia, and DeepSeek is expected to scrub technical fingerprints before releasing the model next week. The revelation arrives as Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic all publicly complain about distillation attacks from Chinese labs. OpenAI recently moved to retire the SWE-bench coding benchmark, and multiple signs suggest DeepSeek's upcoming V4 model could outperform Western rivals in coding.

View full digest for February 24, 2026