U.S. chipmaker Nvidia helped China’s DeepSeek improve artificial intelligence models that were later used by the Chinese military, said chairman of a U.S. House of Representatives committee in a letter seen by Reuters.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek wreaked havoc in the tech world after unveiling a cheaper and more efficient AI model, known as the R1 reasoning model. The introduction of this Chinese counterpart shook the Western world amid fears that China would catch up with the US in artificial intelligence despite restrictions.
Writing to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who leads the House Select Committee on China, said committee-obtained Nvidia documents showed the breakthrough came after extensive technical assistance from Nvidia.
“According to NVIDIA records, NVIDIA technology development personnel helped DeepSeek achieve major training efficiency gains through an ‘optimized co-design of algorithms, frameworks, and hardware,’ with internal reporting boasting that ‘DeepSeek-V3 requires only 2.788M H800 GPU hours for its full training’ – less than what U.S. developers typically require for frontier-scale models.”
-Moolenaar wrote in the letter.
These documents include Nvidia activities from 2024, when there was no public indication that DeepSeek’s technology was being used by China’s military.
“Nvidia treated DeepSeek accordingly – as a legitimate commercial partner deserving of standard technical support,” Moolenaar wrote.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q3 2025.
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11. SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 22
SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) is one of the 11 Buzzing AI Stocks on Wall Street. On January 28, the company announced the expansion of its relationship with leading burger chain Five Guys, broadening the deployment of its AI-powered ordering agents. The extension follows SoundHound’s AI technology having already processed over one million customer interactions at Five Guys locations.
Five Guys offer an AI-powered ordering experience across hundreds of locations, with its goal to serve customers the way they expect to be served. AI technology can do this as it improves both customer service and operational efficiency.
Through SoundHound’s voice AI technology, the burger chain is able to answer 100% of incoming orders – even during peak hours. This helps eliminate missed order, and ensure guests can place an order quickly and accurately.
The technology is designed to comprehend natural speech patterns and can process menu orders, answer questions about specials and promotions, and deliver any information needed about store hours, parking, and even allergens.
“Five Guys is a forward-thinking partner that continues to raise the bar on what the ordering experience can be,” said James Hom, Chief Product Officer at SoundHound AI. “We’re proud to support their restaurants with solutions that enhance both the guest experience and day-to-day operations for staff.”
SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) is a voice artificial intelligence company offering voice AI solutions to businesses.
10. CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 62
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is one of the 11 Buzzing AI Stocks on Wall Street. On January 28, HSBC analyst Abhishek Shukla lowered the price target on the stock to $41.00 (from $44.00) while maintaining a Reduce rating. The firm believes that CoreWeave’s ongoing funding needs and high cost of capital may impact long-term productivity.
The firm has increased its interest cost estimates for CoreWeave due to a 250 basis points widening in the company’s credit default spread (CDS) spreads by the third quarter of 2025. This implies that the company will need to pay more than 10% yield for raising fresh debts. In 3Q25, CoreWeave was able to raise fresh debt at about 9% effective interest rate for the company, an assumption which the firm no longer views as sustainable.
HSBC noted that while the company’s January 2026 $2 billion equity from Nvidia and its December issuance of 1.75% convertible notes may help put a lid on near-term interest costs, CRWV still likely faces a liquidity shortfall of USD 8.9 billion in 2026e.
As a result, the firm believes that the company will likely need to borrow more funds at current higher yields, in turn increasing its effective cost of debt.
“Consensus continues to assume that the effective interest rate on debt for CoreWeave will dip to 7.7% in 2029e from 9.9% in 3Q25. We lower our 2027-30e non GAAP EPS estimates by 12-33% (on a very low base) due to higher interest expense. 2026e non-GAAP EPS, however, rises to USD0.15 (from negative USD0.06) on lower debt. Our 2027-30e non-GAAP EPS estimates remain 58-92% below consensus.”
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is a cloud platform provider that provides equipment for AI and other computing purposes.
