Study Finds Multiple Chinese AI Models Contain NVIDIA Blackwell GPU Fingerprints

ChainCatcher report: According to an analysis released by Unemployment Labs on November 12, 2026, researchers conducting forensic-level tracing of publicly available model weights discovered that six recently released AI models from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax, and Ant Group contain digital fingerprints matching the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. The study indicates that these models utilized high-end hardware subject to U.S. export controls during their initialization phase. Although this fingerprinting technique cannot trace the specific location or acquisition method of the chips, nor prove whether export regulations were violated, the technical evidence suggests that China’s leading AI developers have begun leveraging the Blackwell architecture for model training. Researchers ruled out other hardware possibilities and confirmed that their analytical method has been validated against known model training hardware.