Nvidia (NVDA) helped DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) optimize its artificial intelligence models that were later used by the Chinese military, according to a letter sent by U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Reuters reported.
“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,’ with internal reporting boasting that ‘DeepSeek-V3 requires only 2.788M H800 GPU hours for its full training’—less than what U.S. developers typically require for frontier-scale models,” wrote Moolenaar, who serves as chair of the House Select Committee on China, the report said.
The documents cited cover Nvidia’s activities in 2024.
The Chinese AI research lab DeepSeek roiled the tech world in January 2025 when it released DeepSeek R1, an AI model that measured up to some frontier models coming out of the U.S., such as OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT, Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) Claude, and Google’s (GOOG)(GOOGL) Gemini, but was reportedly trained with only a fraction of the computing power.
“Nvidia treated DeepSeek accordingly—as a legitimate commercial partner deserving of standard technical support,” Moolenaar wrote.
Nvidia’s H800 chip was crafted for the Chinese market. They were sold there until the U.S. enacted export controls in October 2023. The U.S. government recently approved the export of the more powerful H200 chip to China.
“China has more than enough domestic chips for all of its military applications, with millions to spare,” Nvidia said in a statement, according to the report. “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.”
“Chip sales to ostensibly non-military end users in China will inevitably result in a violation of the military end-use restrictions,” Moolenaar said in the letter.