Our forensic analysis of publicly released AI models finds evidence that DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax and Ant Group have gained access to NVIDIA’s Blackwell GPUs, despite restrictions on exporting these chips to China, and are using that hardware to create their AI models. Six models released by these companies since April 2026 contain numerical patterns matching Blackwell hardware, whereas earlier models from the same companies match NVIDIA’s older Hopper generation. The findings suggest that several leading Chinese AI developers have begun using Blackwell to train their newest models. U.S. officials and press reports had already alleged that DeepSeek and Moonshot AI were using Blackwell chips, without publishing technical evidence.
Chinese frontier AI models carry the fingerprint of export-controlled GPUs
HN Hacker News 
Key takeaways
Chinese AI companies may have used NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs despite export restrictions, according to model analysis.
- DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and others used Blackwell GPUs for AI models.
- Evidence came from model weights, not leaks or insiders.
- AMD hardware is considered unlikely for most models.
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