Chaos at DeepSeek as R2 launch crashes into hardware problems – rivals gain huge advantage

• DeepSeek delays R2 launch due to persistent technical difficulties with Huawei Ascend chips
• Nvidia H20 systems remain more reliable for AI training than domestic Ascend hardware
• Alibaba’s Qwen3 exploits DeepSeek’s delays, incorporating core algorithms while improving efficiency and flexibility

Chinese AI giant DeepSeek has apparently encountered unexpected delays in releasing its latest model, R2, after facing persistent technical difficulties with Huawei’s Ascend chips.

The company had been encouraged by Chinese authorities to adopt domestic processors instead of relying on Nvidia’s H20 systems, which are generally regarded as more mature and reliable.

Despite Huawei engineers being on-site to assist, DeepSeek could not complete a successful training run using Ascend chips - and as a result, the company relied on Nvidia hardware for training while using Ascend for inference tasks.