DeepSeek Open-Sources DeepInfer: Compatible with Nvidia and Huawei Chips, Claims $38/Hour Revenue Per GPU

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek officially open-sourced its internally developed inference framework, DeepInfer, on Tuesday. Designed specifically for efficient execution of its flagship DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model, the framework's core breakthrough is simultaneous support for Nvidia's SM100 Blackwell GPUs and Huawei's Ascend 950 chips. This move aims to help the community lower compute costs, reduce energy consumption, and make AI services more affordable.

In a technical article published on Zhihu, DeepSeek disclosed a key economic metric: under DeepInfer, a single computing cluster running the V4.1-Flash model could generate revenue equivalent to US$38 per GPU per hour, based on off-peak pricing rates. The company noted that the framework improves cost-efficiency by retaining previously processed information for over 72 hours, thereby reducing repeated computation. However, DeepSeek did not disclose operating costs or profit margins, meaning this revenue figure should be viewed as a vendor-reported efficiency estimate rather than independently verified financial performance.

The release coincided with combative remarks from DeepSeek senior researcher Chen Deli. On social media, he described the divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a "decisive battle" between "light and darkness" for humanity's future, stating, "However long they want to fight, we’ll fight. Until total victory." This rhetoric reflects Chinese tech companies' response to the dominance of American closed-source entities like Anthropic and OpenAI amid intensifying US-China AI competition. Although the US government proposed export controls on 23 AI-related technologies last week, a Chinese government spokesperson stated that Beijing would continue to encourage open-source AI and promote its adoption globally, particularly across the Global South.