DeepSeek announced that the 75% discount for using the V4-Pro artificial intelligence (AI) model will now be maintained. DeepSeek previously said the discount would only be given until May 31 to allow users to try out its latest V4 model, which was launched at the end of April.
The API cost is now between 0.025–6 Yuan/1 million tokens (RM 0.015 – 3.45), down from 0.1 – 24 Yuan (~RM 0.58 – 14) previously. Customers have complained that DeepSeek charges V4-Pro subscriptions up to 12 times more expensive than the Flash version due to high-performance computing capacity constraints. DeepSeek did not say whether the permanent discount is due to an increased supply of Huawei Ascend 950 chips used to optimize the performance of the V4-Pro. It previously confirmed that the DeepSeek V4 family models are optimized to use Huawei’s AI chips.
Huawei's AI chip sales have surged as US sanctions have prevented NVIDIA from selling its highest-end chips in China. The Chinese government has also encouraged local companies to use locally-made chips by offering discounts on power supplies. As a result, last week, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang admitted that his company had ceded the entire AI chip market to Huawei, leaving its Chinese market share at zero.
