DeepSeek Reportedly Breaks with Practice, Withholds Latest V4 AI Model from Nvidia and AMD

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has drawn attention for its low-cost large language models. Pre-release optimization across different chips directly affects inference performance and hardware adoption. Developers have typically provided models to Nvidia and AMD before launch, but DeepSeek’s reported shift toward Huawei could advance China’s efforts to reduce its reliance on advanced U.S. chips.

People familiar with the matter said DeepSeek did not give Nvidia or AMD access to a pre-release version of its flagship V4 model, instead prioritizing access for Chinese suppliers including Huawei. V4 is reportedly scheduled for release in late April, will support a one-million-token context window and could run on Huawei’s Ascend 950PR. Separate reports claim its cost is about one-hundredth that of GPT.