Blogger challenges report DeepSeek trained R2 on Huawei Ascend, citing shaky details
teortaxesTex · x · 2026-09-25
Pushing back on reports that DeepSeek tried training an "R2" model on Huawei Ascend chips, teortaxesTex raises several objections:
- DeepSeek likely never had a separate "R2" project: its strategy has been to unify model lines and serve as few checkpoints as possible, with DS-R more likely to spin off like DS-Coder. Testing a flagship on a brand-new stack makes little sense versus a V3.5-lite trial.
- Supporting evidence: Zhipu trained a 9B GLM-Image on Ascend, yet still trains its flagships on Nvidia months later — even a state-aligned lab stayed cautious.
- Huawei's best hardware at the time (910C) had poor software support; the first large model trained on such hardware only recently came from Meituan — which is implausibly better at ML than DeepSeek.
Responding to "Will Huawei catch up to Nvidia by 2030?", he argues the post's assumptions deserve scrutiny: if China escalated HBM sourcing to a national effort, the conclusion could flip entirely.
Related event: Blogger disputes report that DeepSeek trained R2 on Huawei Ascend(2 posts)→
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