DeepSeek begins in-house AI chip development to cut reliance on NVIDIA, sources say

In recent years, as generative AI has shifted from model training toward large-scale inference, an increasing number of AI model developers have turned their attention to underlying hardware. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has launched an in-house AI chip project focused on inference workloads, according to Reuters . The company aims to reduce inference costs through custom-designed processors while lowering its reliance on overseas suppliers such as NVIDIA.