Singapore says U.S. companies will have to conform to export controls following DeepSeek chip questions

Singapore’s Ministry of Industry and Business (MTI) mentioned in a commentary Saturday that it expects U.S. corporations to conform to U.S. export controls and native regulations, following questions over the chips worn through China’s DeepSeek to build its AI fashion.

Markets had been rocked this past later DeepSeek claimed its massive language fashion outperforms OpenAI’s however value a fragment of the fee to coach. Then again, questions had been quickly raised over the provenance of the semiconductors worn to assemble DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning fashion given U.S. restrictions on exporting complex AI chips in China. 

Bloomberg on Friday reported that U.S. officers had been investigating whether or not DeepSeek had purchased complex semiconductors from chipmaker Nvidia by the use of 3rd events in Singapore.

A Nvidia spokesperson advised CNBC Monday that the chips worn through DeepSeek had been totally export-compliant. DeepSeek used to be no longer in an instant to be had for remark when contacted through CNBC.

“We expect US companies, like Nvidia, to comply with US export controls and our domestic legislation. Our customs and law enforcement agencies will continue to work closely with their US counterparts,” MTI mentioned in its commentary.

“We have always upheld the rule of law, and acted decisively and firmly against individuals and companies that flout the rules.”

In its third-quarter results revealed in November, Nvidia mentioned that Singapore accounts for nearly 22% of its earnings however added that: “most shipments associated with Singapore revenue were to locations other than Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant.”

MTI cited Nvidia’s feedback in its Saturday commentary and mentioned the chipmaker mentioned there used to be incorrect explanation why to imagine that DeepSeek had got any export-controlled merchandise by the use of Singapore.

“Singapore is an international business hub. Major US and European companies have significant operations here. Nvidia has explained that many of these customers use their business entities in Singapore to purchase chips for products destined for the US and other Western countries,” MTI added.

— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this document.