The U.S. has ordered federal civilian agencies to halt the procurement and usage of services and products developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, requiring their removal from government IT systems. This action stems from national security concerns regarding the company's ties to China, as confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security. The directive extends beyond DeepSeek's own software to include third-party products and services that utilize DeepSeek technology, though agencies may apply for exceptions.
The DHS cited worries regarding DeepSeek's management of user data, noting that sensitive information belonging to U.S. government users could potentially become accessible to Chinese authorities under Chinese law, as stated in the order.
This action occurs amidst intensified competition in artificial intelligence between the United States and China. The Chinese AI model poses a challenge to U.S. rivals, such as OpenAI and Meta, by offering low-cost, open-weight models.
China pushed back against the measure. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated on Tuesday that Beijing opposes the "overstretching of the concept of national security" and the "politicization of technology and trade issues," as reported in an official briefing. She added, "We will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises."
The U.S. has previously taken steps to restrict DeepSeek's use within the government. A law passed in December 2025 targeted its deployment in national security systems within intelligence agencies. The latest order broadens these restrictions to federal civilian agencies, encompassing both new acquisitions and existing IT infrastructure.
Concurrently, China is reportedly evaluating export restrictions on 23 AI-related technologies, including chip designs and certain advanced AI models, to address security and misuse risks, according to a report from Bloomberg last week.
The Chinese AI lab has faced international scrutiny and regulatory examination since its R1 reasoning models shook the industry in January 2025, precipitating a sharp sell-off in Nvidia shares.
The U.S. has accused DeepSeek and five other Chinese AI companies, including Alibaba and Moonshot AI, of employing large-scale model distillation to extract information from American AI systems, according to a September report.
Furthermore, OpenAI and Anthropic have separately raised alarms about DeepSeek's alleged use of model distillation, a technique that leverages outputs from one AI model to train another. Earlier this year, OpenAI informed U.S. lawmakers it had observed suspected attempts by DeepSeek to distill its models, while Anthropic stated it had identified unauthorized attempts by DeepSeek and other Chinese AI labs to collect outputs from Claude.
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