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DeepSeek and Zhipu AI Begin Self-Developing AI Chips

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DeepSeek and Zhipu AI Begin Self-Developing AI Chips

TL;DR

  • DeepSeek and Zhipu AI are developing custom AI chips for inference, joining OpenAI and Anthropic.
  • This move aims to reduce costs associated with continuous inference and GPU dependency.
  • For Chinese firms, in-house chip development also mitigates risks from US export controls on advanced GPUs.
  • Chip development is capital-intensive, with estimated design costs around $500 million and no guarantee of success.
  • The industry is seeing a bifurcation of training and inference hardware, with specialized chips for each function.