My Take | DeepSeek’s data format innovation for local AI chips fans fresh hopes of more disruption
DeepSeek’s incremental progress is significant as it has created a new trajectory for China to achieve AI supremacy
DeepSeek, the Hangzhou-based artificial intelligence start-up, may have made another breakthrough that could disrupt the way AI models are trained in China.
Its innovative data format, UE8M0 FP8, could pave the way for home-grown graphics processing units (GPUs) to be deployed in training powerful models even though local GPUs are not as powerful as Nvidia’s.
China’s stock market investors were excited about the breakthrough, pouring money into local GPU developers such as Cambricon Technologies, a Beijing-based start-up with the potential to take on Nvidia in the Chinese market.
The frenzy was akin to January when DeepSeek sent shock waves across the US equity market. The little-known company, whose head office is in a commercial office tower serving banks and investment firms, was regarded as “the biggest black horse” in China’s AI landscape after it unveiled its V3 model in December last year and the R1 model in January. The two models were on par with the world’s best in terms of performance but they were developed at a fraction of the cost.
