Facing US export controls, China's DeepSeek plans to make its own chips
Ars Technica AI · Samuel Axon · 2026-07-07
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is pursuing vertical integration into semiconductor manufacturing, meeting with hardware partners and hiring chip engineers over the past year in response to US export controls that restrict its access to advanced GPUs.
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Topics: deepseekus-china-tech-competitionsemiconductor-industryexport-controlsai-hardware
Claims
- DeepSeek has been working on entering the chip business for approximately one year, according to three sources cited by Reuters.
- The company has been meeting with potential partners in the hardware and silicon space as part of this initiative.
- DeepSeek has been actively hiring engineers to staff its chip development project.
- US export controls restricting advanced chip sales to China are the primary driver behind DeepSeek's semiconductor ambitions.
Key quotes
DeepSeek has been working on a move into silicon for about a year.