Nvidia’s Role in Advancing Chinese Military AI Technology Raises Concerns
SAN FRANCISCO—Recent revelations regarding U.S. chipmaker Nvidia’s collaboration with China’s DeepSeek have prompted significant alarm among policymakers
A letter from Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, details how Nvidia assisted DeepSeek in refining artificial intelligence models that have purportedly been harnessed by the Chinese military.
DeepSeek made headlines early last year by unveiling a suite of AI models that rivaled top-tier offerings from American tech giants.
Notably, these models were cultivated with substantially less computational resources, stoking fears in Washington that China could close the gap with the U.S. in AI capabilities, notwithstanding stringent U.S. sanctions on high-performance computing chips exported to China.
In his correspondence to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Moolenaar disclosed that documents procured by the committee from Nvidia illustrated that the success of DeepSeek was largely attributable to extensive technological support from Nvidia.
He emphasized that, according to Nvidia’s records, their personnel contributed to notable efficiency improvements by optimizing the co-design of algorithms, frameworks, and hardware.
Internal reports proudly claimed that “DeepSeek-V3 requires only 2.788M H800 GPU hours for its full training,” a figure well below the typical requirements of U.S. developers for similar advanced models.
The term GPU hours refers to the cumulative operational hours necessary for an AI chip to effectively train a model, while frontier-scale models denote leading innovations produced by American firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s Alphabet.
The documents span Nvidia’s efforts from 2024. Moolenaar noted that at the time assistance was rendered, there was no public evidence suggesting that DeepSeek’s technology was being employed for military purposes by China.
“Nvidia regarded DeepSeek as a legitimate commercial partner, deserving of standard technical assistance,” Moolenaar articulated in the letter.
Nvidia’s H800 chip was specifically engineered for the Chinese market and was sold prior to the imposition of U.S. export controls in 2023. Previous reports indicated that U.S. officials are concerned that DeepSeek’s advancements could bolster China’s military capabilities.
“China possesses an ample supply of domestic chips sufficient for all military applications, with millions left over. Just as it would be illogical for the U.S. military to utilize Chinese technology, it is equally imprudent for the Chinese military to rely on American innovations,” Nvidia stated in a recent press release.
Additionally, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., reiterated, “China has consistently opposed attempts to extend the definition of national security or politicize trade and technology matters. We urge the U.S. to undertake substantive actions to stabilize global industrial and supply chains.”
The U.S. Commerce Department has not yet responded to inquiries about these revelations. DeepSeek also declined to comment outside of normal business hours in China.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration authorized sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China with specific restrictions, ensuring that these chips would not be sold to entities aiding the Chinese military.
The H200 model possesses greater capabilities than the H800 chips utilized by DeepSeek, a decision that incited criticism from various factions within U.S. politics over concerns that such sales could enhance Beijing’s military prowess and compromise U.S. leadership in AI.
“If even the world’s most valuable company cannot guarantee that its products will not have military applications when sold to Chinese entities, rigorous licensing restrictions and enforcement will be vital to ensure these assurances are not mere formalities,” Moolenaar cautioned.
“Sales of chips to ostensibly non-military end users in China are bound to contravene military end-use restrictions,” he added.
Source link: Asahi.com.
