What is being claimed?
Former OpenAI researcher Will DePue says he has produced the first technical evidence that DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax and Ant Group used Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs despite US export controls. The claim covers six Chinese AI models.
How the method works
DePue's forensic approach reads chip-specific signatures directly from published model weights, attempting to extract traces of the training hardware from the model itself. It is an unusual route for supply-chain auditing.
Cost estimate
The researcher estimates that the hardware behind the five training runs cost more than half a billion dollars. If accurate, that points to significant compute capacity routed around the controls.
Why it matters
US chip export controls are meant to limit Chinese labs' access to the most powerful Nvidia hardware. If such forensic evidence is verified, it could reshape the debate over enforcement and hardware smuggling. For now, the claim awaits independent verification.
