DeepSeek plans to pre-train its next model on Huawei Ascend chips. This would be the first time Ascend chips are used for pre-training a DeepSeek model. Huawei deployed 3,000 Ascend chips to support DeepSeek V3 and R1 in early 2025. Huawei later said its systems could fully support DeepSeek V4. DeepSeek open-sourced tools adapted for Huawei’s Ascend platform in September. A Shenzhen consortium completed post-training of DeepSeek V4-Pro on Ascend 910C chips. Pre-training from scratch remains untested on Ascend chips. Success would reduce reliance on Nvidia hardware for Chinese AI developers. The plan has not been independently confirmed. Viability depends on training stability, cluster performance and software maturity.
What changed
Ascend chips were used mainly for inference and post-training, not pre-training.
What it unlocks
Pre-training a next-generation model on domestic Chinese AI chips.
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