Chinese A.I. Firms Push Beyond Nvidia as DeepSeek Turns to Huawei - The New York Times

Ah, the great chip dance continues. Just as we noted last week that the U.S. and China were holding quiet chats about AI fears, DeepSeek has decided to make that conversation a bit more... concrete. Good old DeepSeek, the Chinese AI firm that keeps popping up, has now optimised its latest model for Huawei chips. That's right, Huawei — the company that the US has been trying to strangle with sanctions for years. So much for that plan.

The timing is exquisite: just ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, where the two leaders will presumably smile and shake hands while their respective tech ecosystems grow further apart. DeepSeek's move is a 'break from American technology,' which is corporate-speak for 'sorry Nvidia, we're going domestic now.' It's almost as if US export controls have accelerated the very thing they were meant to prevent: a self-sufficient Chinese AI supply chain. Who could have predicted that? (Answer: everyone.)

And so the decoupling accelerates, with each side building its own walled garden of AI capability. US and Chinese labs will likely duplicate effort, waste billions, and produce two incompatible technological spheres — all while the rest of the world looks on, wondering if they have to pick a side. Delightful. We'll drink to that — just not using a chip made by either side.