June 26 (Reuters) - Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has not

yet determined the timing of the release of its R2 model as CEO

Liang Wenfeng is not satisfied with its performance, The

Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with

knowledge of the situation.

R2, a successor to DeepSeek's wildly popular R1 reasoning

model, was planned for release in May with goals to produce

better coding and reason in languages beyond English, Reuters

reported earlier this year.

Over the past several months, DeepSeek's engineers have been

working to refine R2 until Liang gives the green light for

release, according to The Information.

However, a fast adoption of R2 could be difficult due to a

shortage of Nvidia ( NVDA ) server chips in China as a result of U.S.

export regulations, the report said, citing employees of top

Chinese cloud firms that offer DeepSeek's models to enterprise

customers.

A potential surge in demand for R2 would overwhelm Chinese

cloud providers, who need advanced Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips to run AI

models, the report said.

DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a Reuters request

for comment.

DeepSeek has been in touch with some Chinese cloud

companies, providing them with technical specifications to guide

their plans for hosting and distributing the model from their

servers, the report said.

Among its cloud customers currently using R1, the majority

are running the model with Nvidia's ( NVDA ) H20 chips, The Information

said.

Fresh export curbs imposed by the Trump administration in

April have prevented Nvidia ( NVDA ) from selling in the Chinese market

its H20 chips - the only AI processors it could legally export

to the country at the time.