MOSCOW (Reuters) - 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 ( NVDA ).

A potential AI alliance between Russia and China, cast by Washington as the biggest nation state threats to the West, could further shake up the AI sector worldwide amid a race between China and the United States for AI dominance.

President Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping share a broad world view which portrays the West as decadent and in decline as China challenges U.S. supremacy in everything from AI and quantum computing to synthetic biology and hard military power.

The West's attempts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine have pushed Moscow and Beijing closer - and Putin has in recent months described China as an "ally".

"China is a partner of Russia on many issues of the international agenda, and the level of scientific cooperation between our countries can be strengthened through collaboration between our scientists," Sberbank's Vedyakhin said.

China has laid out a plan to be the world's leader in AI by 2030.