The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has attracted attention by analyzing in detail the success background of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup 'DeepSeek,' which amazed Silicon Valley in the United States with its expense and performance innovations.
According to BBC on the 29th (local time), DeepSeek noted that the U.S. semiconductor export controls against China became an opportunity for China, and the strong support from the Chinese government also played a significant role.
Since about two years ago, the United States has prohibited leading semiconductor manufacturers, such as NVIDIA, from selling advanced semiconductors to China. Liang Wenfeng (梁文鋒), the founder of DeepSeek, said in an interview with Chinese media that semiconductor export controls represent 'the greatest challenge.'
According to Technology Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), DeepSeek significantly stockpiled NVIDIA's AI chip A100 before the export ban. The stockpiled amount is estimated to be between 10,000 and 50,000 units. While advanced AI models in the West are estimated to use about 16,000 special chips, DeepSeek has trained its AI model using only 2,000 special chips and thousands of subordinate chips.
Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, analyzed, 'U.S. export controls have pushed Chinese AI corporations like DeepSeek to innovate, and Chinese corporations have become capable of achieving more with fewer semiconductors.'
The strong support from the Chinese government has also laid the foundation for the 'DeepSeek Shock.' Under the ambition of Xi Jinping to make China a technology powerhouse, the Chinese government has made significant investments in various fields, from electric vehicle batteries and solar energy to AI. The Chinese government has also focused on nurturing AI talent by providing scholarships and research subsidies in recent years and encouraging industry-academia cooperation.
Associate Professor Zhang evaluated, 'National-scale laboratories for deep learning and other national support programs have helped nurture thousands of AI experts.'
In the case of DeepSeek, the research and development (R&D) staff consists of only 139 people, most of whom are domestic talents from prestigious Chinese universities. Notably, founder Liang Wenfeng is also from the prestigious Zhejiang University. He is currently celebrated as one of the 'three great AI heroes of China,' alongside Yang Zilin, who founded another AI startup called Moonshot on Chinese social media, and He Kai-ming, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
There are analyses suggesting that the timing of DeepSeek's unveiling of its latest model, R1, coinciding with the inauguration date of then-President Donald Trump on the 20th, was likely intentional. Gregory C. Allen, an AI expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), stated, 'The timing and manner of conveying the message make it appear as if the Chinese government wants the export controls to seem ineffective and that the U.S. is not the global leader in the AI field.'