The developer of the chatbot that shocked U.S. incumbents had access to Nvidia chips that its parent company providentially acquired just before a 2022 U.S. export ban.

The Commerce Department has launched a probe into whether Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek obtained restricted Nvidia chips through Singapore, reports say.

DeepSeek has launched an AI model that was reportedly developed with significantly less computational power than traditional methods. Shares of Nvidia are under pressure amid concerns that DeepSeek's methods may undermine demand for its high-performance GPUs.

A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app.