Huawei chips refine DeepSeek model in major leap for China’s AI self-reliance

A research team that includes Huawei Technologies says it has successfully used the firm’s Ascend 910C chips to complete post-training for the DeepSeek-V4-Pro model, marking a major step forward as China’s semiconductor industry tries to leap from supporting basic AI inference to more complex model training amid tightening US sanctions.While Chinese chipmakers have found success in supporting AI inference – the relatively simple process of running an already-finished model to answer user prompts – they have struggled with training, the far more complex process of building or refining a model’s brain.If initial “pre-training” teaches a model how to speak by absorbing massive amounts of data, post-training teaches it how to work by following human instructions, safety rules and specific tasks.A Huawei Ascend 910 processor is displayed during PT Expo China in 2023. Photo: Shutterstock ImagesTo achieve this, the researchers ran DeepSeek’s largest model to date – boasting 1.6 trillion parameters – on a computing cluster powered by at least 1,000 Huawei chips, according to a social media post from the Shenzhen government on Friday.