After DeepSeek leap forward, Russia's Sberbank plans joint AI research w/ China

6/2/2025 16:14

Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank, plans to collaborate with Chinese researchers on joint AI projects after DeepSeek upended the technology landscape by creating a powerful AI model much more cheaply than U.S. rivals, a top executive told Reuters.



Russia and China, which share what they call a "no limits" strategic partnership, have long talked about AI cooperation - including in military applications - but little is publicly known about the depth or scope of the cooperation.



Sberbank, under CEO German Gref, has transformed itself from a Soviet-style former state savings bank burdened by onerous bureaucracy into one of Russia's leading players in artificial intelligence and released its GigaChat model in 2023.



"Sberbank has many scientists. Through them, we plan to conduct joint research projects with researchers from China," Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told Reuters.



DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, sent shockwaves through global markets last month as investors bet that its low cost models would threaten the dominance of current U.S. leaders such as Nvidia.