Based on information from Reuters, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has opted not to offer early testing opportunities for its upcoming flagship model to US chip manufacturers for the purpose of performance optimization. Rather, it has decided to grant such early access to domestic suppliers, prominently including Huawei. The next significant upgrade, known as V4, is anticipated to be launched around the time of the Spring Festival.

Previously, DeepSeek had maintained a close collaborative relationship with Nvidia. However, this time around, it has excluded both Nvidia and AMD from early testing, thereby affording Chinese chipmakers a lead time of several weeks to fine-tune their processors. The CEO of a research firm commented that this move is unlikely to significantly affect the market for general-purpose data accelerators offered by Nvidia and AMD. This is because the majority of companies are not currently utilizing DeepSeek's services, and the advent of new AI coding tools can potentially shorten the duration needed for software to operate efficiently on hardware.