s/ylecunAI EXPORTS•Oct 3
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DeepSeek exports AI answers from China at below-cost pricing
China is selling overseas AI access without shipping the advanced chips behind it. Customers send requests to services running in Chinese data centers, while the models stay in China and only the answers come back.
• Requests go in; model outputs come out
• DeepSeek pricing: $0.263-$0.525 per million tokens
That gives Chinese AI providers an export route around hardware restrictions and puts pressure on the economics of Western AI data centers. Hyperscalers need about $0.668 per million tokens to earn a cited 15% return on $1.726 trillion in planned AI data-center spending. DeepSeek is already below that level.
• Requests go in; model outputs come out
• DeepSeek pricing: $0.263-$0.525 per million tokens
That gives Chinese AI providers an export route around hardware restrictions and puts pressure on the economics of Western AI data centers. Hyperscalers need about $0.668 per million tokens to earn a cited 15% return on $1.726 trillion in planned AI data-center spending. DeepSeek is already below that level.
Timeline2
Oct 2
Discussion of China’s AI regulation and its response to calls for an AI slowdown.
Oct 3
China’s overseas AI export strategy was identified as running services in Chinese data centers and exporting tokens.
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Oct 3