DeepSeek's R1 model shook the AI industry when it arrived in January over claims it was trained on 2,048 Nvidia H800s and at a cost of

DeepSeek delayed the launch of its R2 model after Huawei chips failed in training, forcing reliance on Nvidia processors and highlighting limits of China's push for domestic AI technology.

Chinese authorities reportedly told DeepSeek to use Huawei’s chips in the wake of a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to prohibit the export of Nvidia’s popular H20 GPU to China. The ban came into effect immediately following the April announcement.