Flexport

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Recent Articles about Flexport
Art by Mike Sullivan
Exclusive

DeepSeek is Using Banned Nvidia Chips in Race to Build Next Model

By The Information Staff · Dec 10, 2025 4:00am PST · 5 comments
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has been developing its next major model using several thousand Nvidia’s state-of-the-art Blackwell chips which the U.S. has forbidden from being exported to China, according to six people with knowledge of the matter. The chips DeepSeek is using were smuggled into China, the people said, through a convoluted... DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has been developing its next major model using several thousand...
Art by Clark Miller.
Exclusive

China Weighs Nvidia Chip Purchase in Emergency Meetings With Tech Companies

By Qianer Liu · Dec 10, 2025 2:00am PST
China on Wednesday gathered its biggest tech giants to discuss whether to allow them to buy Nvidia’s advanced H200 chips, as President Donald Trump’s recent decision to allow the export of the powerful hardware to the country suddenly complicated Beijing’s goal to become technologically self-sufficient. Officials convened a series of emergency... China on Wednesday gathered its biggest tech giants to discuss whether to allow them to buy...
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ordered a halt to the price wars in batteries, electric vehicles and solar. Photo: Xie Huanchi/Xinhua/Getty
The Electric

The Electric: The Winners and Losers in China's Crackdown on the Battery Price War

By Steve LeVine · Dec 4, 2025 4:30am PST
In July, Beijing ordered a halt to a brutal price war that was roiling China’s electric vehicle industry. Now China’s leaders have told cutthroat battery makers to knock it off, too. In July, Beijing ordered a halt to a brutal price war that was roiling China’s electric vehicle...
Why China Doesn’t Want to Buy More Nvidia Chips
By Qianer Liu · Nov 30, 2025 7:59am PST · 3 comments
Sunday Insights

Why China Doesn’t Want to Buy More Nvidia Chips

By Qianer Liu · Nov 30, 2025 7:59am PST · 3 comments
Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI chips, China has managed to turn the situation around. For the next five years, it will have more AI chips than its companies need. The excessive supply is a combination of local chipmakers catching up and tech companies stockpiling Nvidia chips via both... Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI...
Art by Mike Sullivan.
Exclusive

China Is Slowly but Surely Breaking Free From Nvidia

By Qianer Liu · Nov 26, 2025 4:00am PST
ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese company in 2025, according to three people with direct knowledge of its purchases. Racing to secure computing power for its billion-plus users and fearing Washington might suddenly cut off supply, the TikTok parent hoarded its stock of the chips. ByteDance’s fears about a supply crunch... ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese company in 2025, according to three...
Jensen Huang. Getty Images.
The Briefing

Nvidia Doesn’t See an AI Bubble as It Rakes In the Cash

By Martin Peers · Nov 19, 2025 5:00pm PST
Bubble? What bubble? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed fretful talk about massive AI investment on Wednesday, extolling the benefits of AI for a wide variety of companies—from startups to big firms like Meta Platforms. Of course, the biggest beneficiary of the AI transformation is Nvidia itself, whose stranglehold on the AI chip market is... Bubble? What bubble? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed fretful talk about massive AI investment...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images
Exclusive

U.S. to Block Nvidia’s Sale of Scaled-Back AI Chips to China

By Qianer Liu · Nov 6, 2025 5:32pm PST · 5 comments
The White House has told others in the federal government it won’t allow Nvidia to sell its latest scaled-down AI chips to China, despite President Donald Trump’s hints over the summer that he might allow the company to do so, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The decision is a major blow to the AI chip giant, which has... The White House has told others in the federal government it won’t allow Nvidia to sell its...
Ion Stoica. YouTube/Opaque Systems
Why OpenAI CFO Said Uncle Sam Should Backstop Chip Financing; Databricks Co-Founder Responds to Benchmark Critics
By Rocket Drew and Amir Efrati · Nov 6, 2025 7:00am PST
Ion Stoica. YouTube/Opaque Systems
AI Agenda

Why OpenAI CFO Said Uncle Sam Should Backstop Chip Financing; Databricks Co-Founder Responds to Benchmark Critics

By Rocket Drew and Amir Efrati · Nov 6, 2025 7:00am PST
It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for assistance, but these aren’t ordinary days. On Wednesday, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar suggested at a Wall Street Journal event that the federal government ought to guarantee the financing of AI chips. Come again?“We’re looking for an ecosystem of banks,... It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for...
Dario Amodei. Photo by Getty Images
AI Agenda

The Information’s Most Promising AI Startups; Positive Cash Flow Seems In Sight For Anthropic

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Laura Mandaro and Rocket Drew · Nov 4, 2025 7:00am PST
I’d recommend you check out our annual list of the most promising startups, which we published this morning and includes companies across artificial intelligence, consumer, cybersecurity, crypto and more.Each year, it gets harder and harder to come up with our final list of AI applications and infrastructure startups. Part of that is due to the... I’d recommend you check out our annual list of the most promising startups, which we published...
An AWS data center in Ashburn, Va. Getty Images.
The Briefing

AWS Joins OpenAI Club

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2025 5:00pm PST
If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with them: They’re not going away anytime soon. On Monday, for instance, Microsoft struck deals with two little-known cloud firms, Lambda and Australia’s Iren, for additional computing capacity. Another firm, Cipher Mining Inc. announced a similar deal to... If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with...
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Getty Images

China Fast-Tracks Tech IPOs to Counter US AI Rivalry

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Oct 29, 2025 8:00am PDT
The tech rivalry with the U.S. has made China take an unusual step: It is accelerating the pace at which startups go public in hopes of increasing investment in the tech sector. In recent months, securities regulators in China approved the public listings of two chip designers, MetaX and Moore Threads, in less than three months. Chinese... The tech rivalry with the U.S. has made China take an unusual step: It is accelerating the pace...