WarChinese AI lab DeepSeek has withheld early access to its flagship V4 model from U.S. chip giants Nvidia and AMD, granting priority instead to domestic player Huawei for optimization. This break from industry norms prioritizes China's local hardware ecosystem amid ongoing U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductors. Reports indicate the model was trained on Nvidia's banned Blackwell chips, potentially violating controls, with DeepSeek possibly masking U.S. hardware traces. Experts suggest the move signals deepening U.S.-China tech decoupling with limited immediate impact on American firms.