July 07, 2026 12:01 PM ET Chinese technology company DeepSeek is reportedly now developing its own artificial intelligence chip amid the technological arms race. DeepSeek’s chip is being crafted for inference, which refers to the phase of AI in which trained models generate replies to users’ questions, rather than for creating new models, Reuters first reported Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources. The news comes as almost every leading AI company worldwide is reportedly moving to create custom chips as part of a broader effort to gain a competitive advantage through hardware tailored to bolster the performance of their AI models, Bloomberg reported. (RELATED: Microsoft Bans Employees From Using ‘Chinese Propaganda’ Chatbot)DeepSeek did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s