Chinese AI labs are training models on Nvidia's Blackwell despite export controls, says ex-OpenAI engineer

Despite US export controls on Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs, Chinese AI labs have been able to train their models on the restricted hardware, according to a former OpenAI engineer. Will DePue, who recently launched an AI research consultancy, discovered that DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax, and Ant Group have utilized these powerful GPUs to create their AI models.

The Blackwell GPUs are currently subject to export restrictions, but DePue's forensic analysis revealed evidence of these chips being employed by Chinese AI labs despite the limitations. By examining the unique patterns in the weights of various models from Chinese AI labs, DePue was able to confirm that six of these models were initialized on Nvidia Blackwell systems.

This marks the first time MiniMax and Ant Group have been publicly linked to the use of Nvidia's Blackwell chips.