Update February 2026: DeepSeek is now available on AWS Bedrock, Azure AI, and Google Vertex AI in EU regions! innFactory AI Consulting from Germany advises on all deployment options - from self-hosting to managed cloud solutions with EU data residency.
Key Strengths
Open Source & Licensing
DeepSeek offers full transparency:
- Public Weights: Fully available on GitHub/Hugging Face
- Licensing: R1 under MIT, V3 under a separate Model Agreement
- Community: Active development
- Customizable: Fine-tuning and modifications possible
MoE Architecture
DeepSeek uses innovative Mixture-of-Experts:
- 671B parameters total, but only 37B active per request
- Efficient: High performance with reduced resource requirements
- Multihead Latent Attention: New attention mechanism
Reasoning Capabilities (R1)
DeepSeek-R1 shows transparent thinking processes:
- Chain-of-thought is made visible
- Particularly strong in mathematics and logic
- Comparable to OpenAI o1
EU Availability (Update February 2026)
DeepSeek is now available through all three major cloud providers in EU regions:
AWS Bedrock
- Regions: Frankfurt (eu-central-1), Ireland (eu-west-1)
- Models: DeepSeek-V3.1, V3.2
- Advantage: Serverless, immediate availability
Azure AI Foundry
- Regions: West Europe, Sweden Central
- Models: V3, R1
- Advantage: Integration into Azure ecosystem
Google Vertex AI
- Regions: Frankfurt (europe-west3), Netherlands (europe-west4)
- Models: V3.2, R1
- Advantage: Vertex AI Model Garden
Self-Hosting
Still available for maximum control and full GDPR compliance.
Important Notes
Data Privacy Considerations
Update February 2026: With availability on AWS Bedrock, Azure AI, and Google Vertex AI in EU regions, enterprises can now use DeepSeek GDPR-compliant in the cloud!
- Cloud Hosting (EU): Data remains in EU regions with AWS/Azure/Google
- Direct API: DeepSeek servers in China (caution with sensitive data)
- Self-Hosting: Still the option with maximum control
For Enterprises: Cloud providers offer EU data residency with full compliance. Self-hosting remains an alternative for highest security requirements.
Self-Hosting as a Solution
The open-source model can be operated in your own infrastructure:
- All data remains under your control
- No dependency on external APIs
- Full GDPR compliance possible
- Hardware requirements: Multiple high-end GPUs (A100/H100)
Price-Performance
DeepSeek offers excellent value:
- API: Very affordable prices (approx. 90% cheaper than GPT-4)
- Self-Hosting: Free to use (only hardware costs)
- No License Fees: R1 under MIT, V3 under Model Agreement
Our Recommendation
DeepSeek is technically impressive and reaches frontier-level performance in reasoning and coding. With the new EU availability on AWS, Azure, and Google, enterprises can now use DeepSeek GDPR-compliant.
For most enterprises, we recommend:
- Cloud Option: DeepSeek-V3.2 via AWS Bedrock (Frankfurt) or Azure AI (West Europe) - simple, managed, EU-compliant
- Self-Hosting: DeepSeek-V3.2 or R1 for maximum control and customizability
The choice depends on your requirements for control, compliance, and technical resources.