Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a press release Saturday that it expects U.S. corporations to comply with U.S. export controls and native laws, following questions over the chips utilized by China’s DeepSeek to provide its AI model.
Markets were rocked this week after DeepSeek claimed its large language model outperforms OpenAI’s but cost a fraction of the worth to coach. Nevertheless, questions were soon raised over the provenance of the semiconductors used to construct DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model given U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced AI chips in China.Â
Bloomberg on Friday reported that U.S. officials were investigating whether DeepSeek had bought advanced semiconductors from chipmaker Nvidia via third parties in Singapore.
A Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC Monday that the chips utilized by DeepSeek were fully export-compliant. DeepSeek was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
“We expect US corporations, like Nvidia, to comply with US export controls and our domestic laws. Our customs and law enforcement agencies will proceed to work closely with their US counterparts,” MTI said in its statement.
“Now we have at all times upheld the rule of law, and acted decisively and firmly against individuals and corporations that flout the foundations.”
In its third-quarter results published in November, Nvidia said that Singapore accounts for nearly 22% of its revenue but added that: “most shipments related to Singapore revenue were to locations apart from Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant.”
MTI cited Nvidia’s comments in its Saturday statement and said the chipmaker said there was no reason to imagine that DeepSeek had obtained any export-controlled products via Singapore.
“Singapore is a global business hub. Major US and European corporations have significant operations here. Nvidia has explained that a lot of these customers use their business entities in Singapore to buy chips for products destined for the US and other Western countries,” MTI added.
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a press release Saturday that it expects U.S. corporations to comply with U.S. export controls and native laws, following questions over the chips utilized by China’s DeepSeek to provide its AI model.
Markets were rocked this week after DeepSeek claimed its large language model outperforms OpenAI’s but cost a fraction of the worth to coach. Nevertheless, questions were soon raised over the provenance of the semiconductors used to construct DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model given U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced AI chips in China.Â
Bloomberg on Friday reported that U.S. officials were investigating whether DeepSeek had bought advanced semiconductors from chipmaker Nvidia via third parties in Singapore.
A Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC Monday that the chips utilized by DeepSeek were fully export-compliant. DeepSeek was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
“We expect US corporations, like Nvidia, to comply with US export controls and our domestic laws. Our customs and law enforcement agencies will proceed to work closely with their US counterparts,” MTI said in its statement.
“Now we have at all times upheld the rule of law, and acted decisively and firmly against individuals and corporations that flout the foundations.”
In its third-quarter results published in November, Nvidia said that Singapore accounts for nearly 22% of its revenue but added that: “most shipments related to Singapore revenue were to locations apart from Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant.”
MTI cited Nvidia’s comments in its Saturday statement and said the chipmaker said there was no reason to imagine that DeepSeek had obtained any export-controlled products via Singapore.
“Singapore is a global business hub. Major US and European corporations have significant operations here. Nvidia has explained that a lot of these customers use their business entities in Singapore to buy chips for products destined for the US and other Western countries,” MTI added.
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
