FBI and the White House take action to investigate! The US suspects that DeepSeek obtained Nvidia chips through a Singaporean white glove.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek recently launched a high-performance AI model, R1, at a low cost, shaking Silicon Valley. Now, the United States is investigating whether DeepSeek bypassed U.S. export control measures on high-tech chips by purchasing advanced chips from Nvidia through a third party in Singapore. (Previous Summary: DeepSeek's data breach disaster! Over 1 million records leaked, API keys, user conversation logs exposed) (Background: OpenAI accuses DeepSeek of infringement, and the creator of DeepSeek sarcastically responds: The biggest thief is calling others thieves. The U.S. Navy orders a ban on DeepSeek) Chinese AI startup DeepSeek recently released a new AI model, DeepSeek-R1, which has caused a sensation because its performance is comparable to OpenAI's latest o1 model. DeepSeek previously claimed that it trained DeepSeek-V3, which has 671 billion parameters, using only 2048 downgraded versions of Nvidia's H800 chips and took two months. However, these claims have raised doubts. Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, stated last week that DeepSeek cannot develop advanced models comparable to OpenAI's 4o and o1 just by using low-end chips. He believes that DeepSeek has about 50,000 of Nvidia's most advanced H100 chips, but they cannot openly discuss it because U.S. export controls are still in place. Did DeepSeek buy Nvidia chips through Singapore? According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, insiders revealed that the U.S. government is investigating whether DeepSeek bypassed U.S. export restrictions on AI chips by purchasing Nvidia's advanced chips through a third party in Singapore. The White House and officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are trying to determine whether DeepSeek used intermediaries in Singapore to purchase Nvidia AI chips that are prohibited from being exported to China by the United States. Nvidia issued a statement earlier this week regarding DeepSeek, stating that the Chinese company did not violate U.S. export controls. A Nvidia spokesperson now states through a statement that the company insists on requiring partners to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Once they receive any information about violations, they will take appropriate action. Previously, Howard Lutnick, the nominee for Secretary of Commerce appointed by U.S. President Trump, stated during a Senate nomination hearing on Wednesday that DeepSeek may have evaded U.S. export controls, saying, 'They purchased a large number of Nvidia chips and found a way to evade the controls. These chips power DeepSeek's AI models.' Singapore as a transit point? In 2023, the Biden administration imposed restrictions on more than 40 countries that may act as intermediaries for China, including most of the Middle East and some Southeast Asian countries, but not including Singapore. Earlier this year, the Biden administration further expanded the restrictions to include most countries in the world, with only a few exceptions for U.S. allies. According to regulatory documents, Singapore accounts for about 20% of Nvidia's revenue. However, a Nvidia spokesperson stated that revenue related to Singapore does not mean that chips are being transferred to China. The publicly filed documents reflect the customer's 'payment location' rather than 'dump location'. Many customers have business entities in Singapore, but the final products are sold to the United States and Western countries. Related reports: OpenAI has obtained evidence of 'DeepSeek infringement', using GPT distillation technology to train China's AI DeepSeek R1 to break through the 'DeFAI new era'. What new paths will Open Source and AI agents take? Did DeepSeek explode the U.S. AI industry's moat, actually being a big positive? Is there something fishy about GPU computing power behind it? 'FBI, White House Investigate! U.S. Suspects: DeepSeek Obtained Nvidia Chips Through Singaporean Front' This article was originally published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media in Taiwan.