Ex-OpenAI researcher claims a 'GPU fingerprint' shows DeepSeek and MiniMax trained on export-banned Nvidia chips

Former OpenAI researcher Will DePue claimed on X on Nov. 12 that he has "conclusive forensic evidence" that China's top four AI labs, DeepSeek, Moonshot, MiniMax and Ant Group, built their newest models on Nvidia's Blackwell chips, which are barred from export to China. The post drew more than 7,200 likes in half a day.

DePue says a model's weights start as random numbers whose pattern depends on a seed and on the exact GPU used, and traces of that pattern survive training. By regenerating the starting weights for each chip-and-seed combination and comparing them with a published model, he says you can tell which GPU built it. He posted an experiment in which a photo of himself, laid into the starting weights, stayed faintly visible after training.

He said MiniMax and Ant had never been publicly tied to Blackwell: "MiniMax's models match Hopper through M2.7 in April and Blackwell from M3 in June," and Ant's GitHub has GB300 benchmark logs dated March 31. The method cannot say where the chips physically are, so it cannot tell smuggling from offshore rental, he added, and now that it is public, labs can erase many of these signatures. DePue was also one of the three amateurs who announced a Claude-assisted dwarf planet candidate a day earlier.

Chip export controls are Nvidia's most sensitive issue right now. Jensen Huang stepped down amid reports raising national security concerns and is expected to attend a closed-door House briefing on Nov. 18, News1 reported.