Lawmakers demand answers from Nvidia over suspected GPU diversions to China, company denies any wrongdoing

A U.S. congressional investigation suspects that Chinese AI company DeepSeek has trained its large language model using tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, many covered by U.S. export controls. As Nvidia's hardware was central to China's AI progress, the House Select Committee on the CCP this week sent a formal letter to Nvidia asking to provide extensive records amid suspicions that its GPUs ended up at DeepSeek through Singapore despite export restrictions.

Nvidia denies any wrongdoing and says its clients use billing addresses in Singapore, but want their GPUs developed elsewhere.

"Our reported Singapore revenue indicates the billing address, often for subsidiaries of our U.S. customers," a statement from Nvidia reads. The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China."

The House Select Committee on the CCP investigation cites SemiAnalysis, which claims that DeepSeek trained its advanced LLMs using at least 60,000 of Nvidia's GPUs, including 10,000 A100, 10,000 H100, 10,000 H800, and 30,000 H20 processors. While the the H800 and H20 GPUs were specifically designed for the Chinese market after the U.S. imposed export restrictions on advanced GPUs in 2022 and 2023, limiting performance threshold of chips that could legally be sold to China without an export license, other processors are restricted for shipments to China.

Authorities believe that DeepSeek may have obtained restricted Nvidia GPUs such as the H100, A100, and other high-performance accelerators through third-party intermediaries, particularly those in Singapore. The suspicions stem from Nvidia's financial filings for FY 2023 and FY 2025 which demonstrate a sharp rise in shipments to Singapore following the imposition of export restrictions from 5% in mid-FY 2023 (calendar 2022) to 18% in FY 2025 (calendar 2025). This discrepancy led investigators to suspect that Singapore may have been used as a transshipment point for restricted hardware ultimately destined for Chinese buyers like DeepSeek.

Singaporean authorities this year arrested multiple individuals, including one Chinese national, for involvement in illegally routing Nvidia GPUs to China. This event added facts to concerns that export restrictions are being bypassed using complex supply chains. The lawmakers point to this case as evidence that the current enforcement mechanisms may be insufficient and that U.S. hardware is still reaching unauthorized destinations.

To assess how such transactions may have occurred, the Committee has demanded a list of all Nvidia customers in China or ASEAN countries (including the purchaser and end-user) who acquired more than 499 AI GPUs or accelerators since the beginning of 2020. The list must include the customer's name, the types and quantities of GPUs purchased, the dates of transactions, and the stated final destination. Essentially, the lawmakers want to find out whether Nvidia could possibly have known where its GPUs were headed.

Additionally, lawmakers are requesting copies of all communications between Nvidia and DeepSeek or any related entities. They also seek all contracts and agreements Nvidia may have signed with organizations in China that fall under U.S. trade or security restrictions. 

"We now know this [DeepSeek] tool exploited U.S. AI models and reportedly used advanced Nvidia chips that should never have ended up in CCP hands," said Rep. John Moolenaar, the chair of the Select Committee, in a press release. "That is why we are sending a letter to Nvidia to demand answers. American innovation should never be the engine of our adversaries' ambitions."

Nvidia denied any wrongdoing and said that its customers from around the world, including those in the U.S., use Singapore billing addresses and usage of such addresses coincided with decreased sales to China:

"The U.S. government instructs American businesses on what they can sell and where — we follow the government's directions to the letter. Nvidia protects and enhances national security by creating U.S. jobs and infrastructure, promoting U.S. technology leadership, bringing billions of dollars of tax revenue to the U.S. treasury, and alleviating the massive U.S. trade deficit. The technology industry supports America when it exports to well-known companies worldwide — if the government felt otherwise, it would instruct us. Our reported Singapore revenue indicates the billing address, often for subsidiaries of our U.S. customers. The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China."

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.