Blackwell

A new research effort claims that leading open-weight models from Chinese labs were trained on Nvidia Blackwell GPUs that US export controls bar from China, indicating restricted compute continues to reach Chinese frontier developers. The report coincides with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's departure after admitting an affair with an executive of Megaspeed, a firm implicated in chip smuggling, putting export-control enforcement gaps and Nvidia's compliance exposure in the spotlight.

Former OpenAI researcher Will DePue claims a forensic analysis uncovered technical fingerprints of Nvidia's export-controlled Blackwell GPUs inside models from six Chinese AI labs, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax and Ant Group. He says the evidence shows access to the latest Nvidia hardware but does not by itself prove smuggling or a legal violation, since capacity could be rented at overseas data centers.

NVIDIA officially announced that Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO, ending a 33-year tenure. The move follows New York Times and Forbes reports of multiple personal relationships, including one with a person accused of being a Chinese spy, and comes after reports that the board was preparing to replace him, making this the most consequential AI leadership shakeup since the Google DeepMind reshuffle.