Chinese state-owned defense giant Norinco in February unveiled a military vehicle capable of autonomously conducting combat support operations at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. It was powered by DeepSeek, the company whose artificial intelligence model is the pride of China's technology sector, writes Reuters.
The launch of the Norinco P60 was touted by Communist Party officials in press statements as a first demonstration of how Beijing is using DeepSeek and artificial intelligence to regain the gap in the arms race with the United States, at a time when the leaders of both countries have urged their militaries to prepare for conflict.
A Reuters analysis of hundreds of research papers, patents and procurement records provides an overview of Beijing's systematic efforts to harness artificial intelligence for military purposes.
Details of how the systems behind China's new-generation weapons work and the extent to which they have been used are state secrets, but procurement records and patents hint at Beijing's progress in capabilities such as autonomous target recognition and real-time battlefield decision support in a way that mirrors efforts by the United States.
Reuters could not determine whether all the products had been built, and the patents do not necessarily indicate operational technology.
Nvidia chips, in high demand
The Chinese Armed Forces (People's Liberation Army) continue to use and seek Nvidia chips, including models subject to US export controls, according to documents, tenders and patents.
Reuters could not determine whether these chips were stockpiled before Washington imposed the restrictions, as the documents do not say when the hardware used was exported.
Patents filed in June show their use by military-related research institutes. In September 2022, the US Department of Commerce banned exports to China of Nvidia's popular A100 and H100 chips.
Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo told Reuters that while the firm cannot track individual resales of previously sold products, “recycling small amounts of old, second-hand products does not enable anything new and does not raise any national security concerns. Use of products restricted for military applications would be impossible without support, software or maintenance.”
The U.S. Treasury Department and Commerce Department did not respond to questions about Reuters' findings.
Pressure on national companies
China's military has also increased its use in 2025 of contractors who claim to use exclusively domestically-made hardware, such as Huawei's artificial intelligence chips, said Sunny Cheung, a fellow at the Washington-based defense policy think tank Jamestown Foundation, which reviewed several hundred bids issued by the Chinese Armed Forces Procurement Network during of six months this year.
Reuters could not independently confirm his claim, but the change would coincide with a public pressure campaign by Beijing on domestic firms to use Chinese-made technology.
The news agency's review of procurement notices and patents filed with China's patent office found demand for and use of Huawei chips by Chinese military structures, but could not verify all the bids seen by the Jamestown Foundation, which this week is publishing a report it provided in advance to Reuters.
Huawei declined to comment when asked about the military use of its chips. The Chinese Ministry of Defense, DeepSeek and Norinco also did not respond to requests for comment on the use of artificial intelligence in military applications. Universities and defense firms that submitted the patents and research papers seen by Reuters also did not respond to similar questions.
Using Deepseek models
The use of DeepSeek models was indicated in more than ten tenders by Chinese military structures submitted this year and seen by Reuters, while only one referenced the Qwen model of Alibaba, a major domestic rival.
Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment on Qwen's military use.
Procurement announcements related to DeepSeek accelerated throughout 2025, with new military applications appearing regularly on the People's Liberation Army network, according to the Jamestown Foundation.
DeepSeek's popularity within the Chinese military also reflects Beijing's efforts to achieve what it calls “algorithmic sovereignty,” reducing reliance on Western technology and strengthening control over critical digital infrastructure.
The US Department of Defense declined to comment on the People's Liberation Army's use of artificial intelligence.
A State Department spokesman responded to questions from Reuters that “DeepSeek has willingly provided and will likely continue to provide support to China's military and intelligence operations.”
Washington will “pursue a bold and inclusive strategy for American AI technology with trusted foreign countries around the world, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries,” the spokesman added.
Application for robot dogs
According to documents seen by Reuters, China is considering the use of robot dogs equipped with artificial intelligence that scout in packs and swarms of drones that autonomously track targets, as well as visually immersive command centers and advanced war-gaming simulations.
In November 2024, the Chinese Armed Forces launched a tender for artificial intelligence robot dogs that would jointly scout for threats and eliminate explosive hazards.
Reuters could not identify whether the bid was won. China has previously used armed robot dogs from AI robot maker Unitree in military exercises, according to images published in state media. Unitree did not respond to questions about its collaboration with the Chinese military.
Analysis of patents, tenders and research papers published over the past two years shows how the People's Liberation Army and its structures are turning to artificial intelligence to improve military planning, including the development of technologies for rapid analysis of images captured by satellites and drones.
10,000 battle scenarios in less than a minute
Researchers at Landship Information Technology, a Chinese company that integrates AI systems into military vehicles, including Norinco's, said in a document published in February to promote its services that its technology based on Huawei chips can quickly identify targets from satellite images while coordinating with radars and aircraft to execute operations.
The time it takes for military strategists to go from finding and identifying a target to executing an operation has also been shortened by AI, according to Xi'an University of Technology.
The institute's researchers said in a summary of their findings published in May that their DeepSeek-based system was able to evaluate 10,000 battle scenarios, each with different variables, terrain and force deployments, in just 48 seconds.
Such a task would have required 48 hours to complete by a conventional team of military strategists, the researchers said. Reuters said it could not independently verify their claims.
Autonomous weapons
The documents suggest that Chinese military entities are investing in increasingly autonomous combat technologies.
Twenty-four of the tenders and patents seen by Reuters show Beijing's military is trying to integrate artificial intelligence into drones so they can recognize and track targets and work together in formations with minimal human intervention.
Beihang University, known for its military aviation research, is using DeepSeek to improve the decision-making process of drone swarms when targeting “low, slow, small” targets, the military term for drones and light aircraft, according to a patent application filed this year.
Chinese defense leaders have publicly pledged to maintain human control over weapons systems, amid growing concerns that a conflict between Beijing and Washington could lead to the uncontrolled use of artificial intelligence-based munitions.
The US military, which is also investing in AI, aims to field thousands of autonomous drones by the end of 2025 in what officials call an attempt to counter China's numerical advantage in unmanned aerial vehicles.
American chips, Chinese models
Chinese defense contractors such as Shanxi 100 Trust Information Technology have touted in marketing materials their reliance on domestically produced components such as Huawei's Ascend chips that enable artificial intelligence models to operate.
The firm did not respond to questions regarding its relationship with Huawei and the Chinese Armed Forces.
Despite the move to in-house processors, Nvidia hardware continues to be frequently cited in research by academics with military ties, according to an analysis of patent applications over the past two years.
Reuters has identified 35 applications that refer to the use of Nvidia's A100 chips by academics at the military's National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and the “Seven Sons”, a group of Chinese universities under US sanctions and with a history of doing defense research for Beijing.
During the same period, these entities filed 15 patents related to AI applications that referenced Huawei's Ascend chips, designed as a replacement for Nvidia chips.
In June, China's Armed Forces Engineering University separately filed a patent for a target detection system that uses sensors for localization, which it said uses A100 chips to train models.
Colonel Zhu Qichao, who heads a NUDT research center, told Reuters last year that US restrictions have affected their AI research “to some extent”, although they are determined to bridge the technology gap.
Nvidia's Rizzo downplayed the Chinese military's demand for Nvidia hardware, saying China “has enough domestic chips for all its military applications.”
