Neither company's figure is audited, and for companies that buy compute a gross margin has to be read together with its accounting scope. DeepSeek, per The Information (single source, unconfirmed by the company, cost basis undisclosed), shows a 44.6% gross margin, which implies RMB 260 million of cost of revenue, while the same report cites RMB 11 billion of compute spending, a 42x gap.
The consensus lines gross margins up side by side as comparable. The diary separates two kinds of company: a compute seller's gross margin is an accounting fact, a compute buyer's is a word problem. First ask whose books the compute spending sits on; if the numbers do not reconcile, it is not one set of books.
Nvidia FY2027 Q2 results (8/26, unaudited): 75.0% gross margin; MiniMax interim results announcement (8/26, unaudited): 17.9%, a 57 percentage-point gap; the two statements are not comparable, read direction only. DeepSeek per The Information (8/26, single source, unconfirmed by the company): RMB 475 million revenue over the first seven months at a 44.6% gross margin, implying RMB 260 million cost of revenue, while the same piece cites RMB 11 billion of compute spending (leases and purchases mixed).
For founders: do not raise on a gross margin that excludes training amortization; one diligence question breaks it. For investors: ask for the scope with the margin (compute rented or bought, in or out of cost of revenue, training amortization in or out); regress MaaS revenue forecasts on the 1% realized coverage, not the 7.5% target.