Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has reportedly withheld its latest AI model from major U.S. chipmakers as it prepares to launch a new flagship update, sources told Reuters.
The company did not share the upcoming model with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for performance testing and optimization.
Instead, DeepSeek gave early access to domestic partners, including Huawei Technologies.
Chinese suppliers were given several weeks to fine-tune the software ahead of the expected release of the V4 model around the Lunar New Year period, the sources told Reuters.
Industry practice usually allows pre-release AI models to be tested on leading hardware platforms to ensure compatibility and performance. DeepSeek has previously worked with Nvidia’s technical engineering team on optimization projects.
The sources said Nvidia and AMD were excluded from early testing.
The reason for the decision remains unclear.
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“Most enterprises are not running DeepSeek, which serves as a benchmarking model more than anything else,” said Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies.
He said AI development tools are speeding up software and hardware optimization.
The process now takes “from months to weeks.”
Bajarin suggested the move may reflect growing technology competition between China and the United States.
The development comes as U.S. officials continue to monitor Chinese AI supply chains.
A senior official in the Donald Trump administration told Reuters that DeepSeek’s newest model may have been trained using advanced Blackwell chips from Nvidia inside mainland China.
The official said the setup could potentially violate U.S. export rules.
He also said DeepSeek may later remove technical signals showing the use of American chips and instead publicly claim that the model was trained using Huawei processors.
DeepSeek’s models have been downloaded more than 75 million times on Hugging Face since the company gained global attention in 2025.
The growth helped expand Chinese open-source AI systems competing with U.S. developers.
Downloads of Chinese-origin models on the platform have now surpassed those from other countries over the past year.
The rise of Chinese AI development has increased policy discussions in Washington over export restrictions on advanced AI chips.
The United States Department of Commerce has said Nvidia’s H200 chips have not been sold to Chinese customers.
It remains unclear whether DeepSeek obtained approval to buy U.S. chips under current licensing rules.