The unveiling of the DeepSeek R1 AI model has caused the AI industry to turn on its head, with accusations now flying around about the theft of data sets and the circumvention of US trade restrictions on NVIDIA hardware.

The latter has caused quite a stir, with the US government announcing it has launched a probe into China's potentially illegal use of NVIDIA AI GPUs that industry experts have suggested were used to train DeepSeek's AI. Government officials, and in particular, Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Commerce Department, insinuated DeepSeek circumvented US trade policies by using intermediaries to acquire NVIDIA's hardware.
Notably, the US government has already banned the trade of these high-end NVIDIA GPUs in more than countries as it believes these countries could be used as intermediaries for China. However, Singapore isn't banned, and consists of approximately 20% of NVIDIA's revenue.
The speculation that Singapore is being used as an intermediary for China's expansive AI training has been heard by NVIDIA, which responded with a spokesperson saying, "End customer and shipping location may be different from our customer's billing location. For example, most shipments associated with Singapore revenue were to locations other than Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant," the company stated in its most recent financial filings."
These concerns have now caused a response by Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, which issued a statement on February 1st, writing, "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."
"NVIDIA has also stated that there is no reason to believe that DeepSeek obtained any export-controlled products from Singapore. 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. We have always upheld the rule of law, and acted decisively and firmly against individuals and companies that flout the rules," added Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry