DeepSeek and Kimi Models Carry Banned Nvidia Blackwell Fingerprints
Six Chinese AI models carry fingerprints of Nvidia's banned Blackwell chips, a forensic report finds, raising fresh questions over US export controls.
Image: Wikimedia Commons / Coolcaesar
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — Six of China’s newest artificial intelligence models carry the forensic fingerprint of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips, banned from export to China, according to a Nov. 12 report from Unemployment Labs, a nonprofit led by former OpenAI researcher Will DePue.
It arrives two days after Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang resigned, and is the first technical evidence that Chinese labs have reached America’s most advanced AI hardware.
Key Takeaways
- Six models from DeepSeek, Moonshot, MiniMax and Ant Group match Blackwell layouts.
- Two match Blackwell B200/B300 chips; four match Grace Blackwell GB200/GB300 systems.
- Earlier models from the same labs match older Hopper chips — a switch in 2026.
- The fingerprint shows which hardware made the starting weights, not where the chips were.
Which Chinese AI Models Carry the Blackwell Fingerprint?
All six were released since April 2026. DeepSeek-V4-Flash and MiniMax-M3 match the 148-SM layout of Blackwell B200 and B300 chips. The other four match the 152-SM layout of Grace Blackwell GB200 and GB300 systems.
| Model | Company | Chip layout |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek-V4-Flash | DeepSeek | B200/B300 (148 SMs) |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | GB200/GB300 (152 SMs) |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot AI | GB200/GB300 (152 SMs) |
| Kimi K3.1-Pro | Moonshot AI | GB200/GB300 (152 SMs) |
| MiniMax-M3 | MiniMax | B200/B300 (148 SMs) |
| Ling-3.1-flash | Ant Group | GB200/GB300 (152 SMs) |
Earlier models from the same four companies match Nvidia’s older Hopper generation. DeepSeek’s latest model, V4.1-Flash, showed no fingerprint at all — a null result, not proof of other hardware.
How the Chip Fingerprint Was Found
Each graphics chip and seed number leaves a unique pattern in a model’s starting weights, and traces survive training. DePue searched more than six trillion combinations against the models’ public weights, using no leaks or insider accounts.
The checks were exact. One Blackwell chip, given the recovered seed, regenerated DeepSeek-V4-Flash’s starting weights exactly, and a rented Grace Blackwell system matched all 13 preserved rows of Kimi K3. Shifting the seed by one broke every match. The full report is on Unemployment Labs’ checkpoint-forensics page.
The method has clear limits: it identifies the hardware behind the starting weights, not every chip used in training, and says nothing about who owned the chips or where they sat, since Blackwell systems can be rented abroad. The report’s chip-count estimates rest on undisclosed figures, and the authors are not confident in them.
What It Means for US Export Controls on China
Blackwell GPUs are banned from export to China, while the Trump administration lets Nvidia export the less powerful H200 under conditions including a 25% tariff. Epoch AI estimates about two million advanced chips reached China in 2024 and 2025 through schemes hiding their destination, including 275,000 Nvidia accelerators imported to Malaysia.
White House adviser Michael Kratsios said earlier this year that Moonshot had used export-banned chips, citing US intelligence, and Bloomberg reported on Friday that a company linked to Alice Huang smuggled banned chips to a Shanghai data centre.
Megaspeed, the Singapore company led by Alice Huang, has sat at the centre of that trade for years through subsidiary Speedmatrix and is under investigation by the United States and Singapore. The Justice Department is examining how Nvidia chips reached China through Megaspeed and Supermicro, and Congress has summoned Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify.
Huang resigned as Nvidia president, chief executive and board member on Nov. 12 after admitting an affair with Alice Huang, whom US intelligence reportedly believes worked for Chinese intelligence. The report does not name Nvidia as a source of the chips and does not claim any law was broken. Chinese labs have kept releasing competitive open models, including Alibaba’s Qwen4 Max preview.
Nvidia reports earnings on Nov. 17, when interim chief executive Colette Kress addresses investors for the first time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did DeepSeek train its models on banned Nvidia Blackwell chips?
Forensic analysis finds fingerprints consistent with Blackwell hardware in the starting weights of six Chinese models, including DeepSeek-V4-Flash and DeepSeek-V4-Pro. The report stops short of proving training on those chips or any law broken.
How can researchers tell which chip trained an AI model?
Each chip and seed number leaves a unique pattern in a model’s starting weights, and traces survive training. Researchers searched more than six trillion combinations against the models’ public weights, then confirmed the match by regenerating the starting weights.
What happens next with US chip export controls on China?
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testifies before Congress in December about Nvidia chip exports, and lawmakers want tighter curbs and Megaspeed on the Entity List.
