U.S. House Panel Labels China's DeepSeek AI as National Security Threat

DeepSeek Poses 'Profound' Security Threat, US House Panel Claims

A bipartisan House committee accused DeepSeek of posing a "profound threat" to US national security by harvesting American users' data and sending it back to China, according to a report published on Wednesday. The House Select Committee on China alleged that DeepSeek's connections to Chinese government interests "are significant," citing corporate filings obtained by the panel. Lawmakers claimed that DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, controls the AI startup alongside the hedge fund High-Flyer Quant in an "integrated ecosystem" with ties to state-linked hardware distributors and Chinese research institute Zhejiang Lab.

US House panel probes whether DeepSeek used restricted Nvidia chips

Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Michael Acton in San Francisco The US House of Representatives China committee has asked Nvidia to explain whether and how Chinese company DeepSeek obtained export-controlled chips to power its artificial intelligence app, which lawmakers say poses a national security threat. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the panel, and his Democratic counterpart Raja Krishnamoorthi on Wednesday wrote to Nvidia to obtain information about their sales to China and south-east Asia. The letter came after the panel released a report that said DeepSeek, which trained its model on Nvidia chips, posed a "profound threat" to US national security. Moolenaar said DeepSeek was a "weapon in the Chinese Communist party's arsenal, designed to spy on Americans, steal our technology, and subvert US law". The US has in recent years introduced sweeping export controls designed to make it harder for Chinese groups to obtain advanced American technology that could help the Chinese military Scrutiny from the committee increases pressure on Nvidia over whether its sophisticated chips are being covertly sold to China, which the company has long said it works to avoid. Moolenaar claimed that DeepSeek "exploited US AI models and reportedly used advanced Nvidia chips that should never have ended up in Chinese Communist party hands . . . That's why we're sending a letter to Nvidia to demand answers." Nvidia on Wednesday pushed back strongly against any suggestion that it might be responsible for export-controlled chips falling into the wrong hands, saying it followed the government's directions on where it can or cannot sell chips "to the letter". "The technology industry supports America when it exports to well-known companies worldwide. If the government felt otherwise, it would instruct us," the company added. The report came a day after it emerged that the US had imposed export controls on Nvidia selling H20 chips to China, blindsiding the company, which had expected relief from the restrictions. In a regulatory filing, Nvidia said the controls would lower earnings by $5.5bn in the quarter to April 27. Nvidia relies on a complex network of supply chain partners such as Dell and Supermicro, which package its chips into servers and sell on to customers. Nvidia on Wednesday addressed suggestions in the congressional report that customers in China may be accessing its export-controlled chips via subsidiaries in Singapore, which accounted for 18 per cent of its 2025 fiscal year revenue, or $23.7bn. The company said the revenue it reports from Singapore was based on billing addresses, meaning it often included subsidiaries of US companies. "The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China," Nvidia said. The China committee's report said DeepSeek transmitted data using infrastructure that was connected to China Mobile, a major Chinese telecoms provider that the Pentagon has designated as having connections to the Chinese military. It added that DeepSeek also integrated tracking tools from large Chinese tech groups, including ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in addition to Baidu, a Chinese internet search engine, and Tencent. "This entangles DeepSeek's data harvesting architecture with [People's Republic of China] companies known for their roles in surveillance and CCP control, heightening the risk that foreign adversary entities could gain access to Americans' private information," the report said. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. DeepSeek could not immediately be reached for comment. DeepSeek sparked a tech market rout earlier this year when it announced breakthroughs that appeared to shift the balance of power in an AI arms race between Washington and Beijing. In January Nvidia had about $600bn wiped off its market valuation as investors reacted to reports that DeepSeek had trained models that were competitive with the latest offerings from groups such as OpenAI at a fraction of the cost and using far less computing power. DeepSeek said it trained its "R1" model using clusters of Nvidia's H800 chips, which are less powerful versions of its H100 chip. The H800 was specifically designed for the Chinese market to comply with US export controls and was later blocked by the Biden administration in 2023.

U.S. House Panel Says China's DeepSeek AI Is a 'Profound Threat' to National Security

In a new report, the bipartisan House committee came to the unsurprising finding that DeepSeek sends user data back to China. A bipartisan House committee on Wednesday recommended placing restrictions on the export of AI models to China after concluding that DeepSeek trained its low-cost models using data from OpenAI's ChatGPT. It also suggested imposing prohibitions on federal agencies procuring AI models from China, which does not seem like something that was going to happen anyway. The House Select Committee on China concluded that DeepSeek poses a "profound threat" to U.S. national security by collecting user data on Americans and sending it back to China. Lawmakers claim that DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, controls DeepSeek as well as a hedge fund called High-Flyer Quant with ties to state-linked research labs. The new report comes a day after the Trump administration placed restrictions on the export of Nvidia H20 chips to China, a major blow for the company that has made billions selling throttled, but still capable, chips for AI processing into the Chinese market. It was previously thought that the administration would continue allowing the sale of H20 chips in the country after CEO Jensen Huang made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, but that seems to have been a strike-out. Critics suggest that the move is ill-considered, as Nvidia was able to make billions while selling Chinese companies processors that were less capable than those available to the Western world. By cutting off access to these lower-end chips, China will be motivated to build its own, faster chips, and Nvidia will lose out on money that could keep America ahead. Another unforced error of President Trump's messy, haphazard trade war. DeepSeek offers open-source language models, and sent the entire AI industry into a frenzy after it claimed it trained a model that could outperform rivals for just $5.6 million, much less than was spent by U.S. competitors. The development raised questions of whether the intense spending in the AI sector is justified, though industry players like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia's Jensen Huang have tried to spin it as a positive under the argument that as models become more efficient, they will be used more often and therefore overall demand will continue to increase. OpenAI, along with its largest backer, Microsoft, was quick to cry foul, alleging DeepSeek's R1 was trained using a distillation technique that involves studying the outputs of another model, including its reasoning steps, to quickly get up to speed. The irony should not be lost on anyone that a company infamous for taking content from across the web without permission has now attacked a competitor for doing the same to it. There is no violin small enough for OpenAI. What is more, this new House committee report was influenced by none other than OpenAI, Bloomberg reports: In its report, which cited testimony from OpenAI, the committee claimed that DeepSeek likely used “unlawful†distillation techniques, whereby one AI model uses the outputs of another for training purposes to develop similar capabilities. OpenAI told the panel that DeepSeek employees “circumvented guardrails†to extract reasoning outputs and accelerate development at a lower cost and claimed the Chinese startup used its models “to grade model responses and filter and transform training data.†The ChatGPT-maker also said it believed “DeepSeek likely also used leading open-source AI models to create high-quality synthetic data.†DeepSeek R1 is an open-source model, meaning it can be hosted locally on U.S. servers and its code can be studied and modified. American companies including Microsoft itself as well as Meta and Perplexity are already hosting the model on their cloud platforms. It is true that consumers visiting chat.deepseek.com will be interfacing with a China-based instance of the chatbot model, but the model itself is not inherently nefarious. If previous examples of America restricting high-tech exports to China are any indicator, further curtailing AI from entering the country might not do much to slow the country down and may actually help them. Existing restrictions on the export of cutting-edge chips forced companies like DeepSeek to make highly efficient models on lower-end processors. When Huawei was cut off from working with Western semiconductor manufacturers, it only accelerated plans by that company to make its own chipsets. The U.S. government fears that China will employ AI in order to advance its geopolitical goals, which is a fair concern. It seems unlikely they can be stopped at this point, however.

China's DeepSeek labeled as national security threat in bipartisan House committee report - SiliconANGLE

China's DeepSeek labeled as national security threat in bipartisan House committee report A bipartisan House committee said today that the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek Ltd. represents a "profound threat" to America's national security, accusing it of serving as an "open-source intelligence asset" that funnels data on U.S. users back to China. The House Select Committee on China also accused DeepSeek of training its models on data "unlawfully obtained" from U.S. AI companies. In response to its findings, it recommends that the White House place new restrictions on the export of AI models to China. DeepSeek is a China-based AI lab that rose to prominence earlier this year when it launched DeepSeek-R1, an open-source large language model that's optimized for reasoning. It outperforms some of the most advanced models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic PBC on a range of complex tasks, despite being trained at a much lower cost. Shortly after DeepSeek R1 was launched, OpenAI and its most prominent backer, Microsoft Corp., cried foul, saying that the model was trained using data stolen from their AI models. They accused the company of using distillation techniques, which involve studying the outputs of other models and copying them to accelerate development. In its report, the committee cites testimony from OpenAI, which believes DeepSeek "circumvented" the guardrails on its own models to extract their reasoning outputs and speed up the development of R1. OpenAI also said that DeepSeek most likely used open-source AI models to create synthetic data in order to train the R1 model. It further accused the company of using its models to grade R1's responses, filter and transform its training data. OpenAI's accusations are somewhat ironic, considering that it has been widely criticized for scraping the internet to gather up content in order to train its models, without asking anyone for permission. In addition to stealing data from OpenAI, the committee also accused DeepSeek of "funneling American user data" to China through unsecured networks, adding that this information could be a useful intelligence asset for Chinese Communist Party's leadership. That said, it's important to note the distinction between the R1 model and DeepSeek's consumer-focused chat application, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. The chatbot service is hosted on servers based in China, and these are indeed most likely gathering data on users. However, R1 itself is an open-source model that can be hosted on any server anywhere in the world. U.S. cloud computing firms including Microsoft and Meta Platforms Inc. are already hosting the R1 model on their own servers. The committee warned that DeepSeek R1 also censors its responses to suppress information relating to democracy, Taiwan and Hong Kong, without any disclosure to users. The report further notes that DeepSeek's founder Lian Wenfang has close links to China's CCP, and is "ideologically aligned with Xi Jinping Thought". The White House has not yet commented on the committee's report, but it does appear to be taking action against DeepSeek and other Chinese AI companies. Last month, it was reported to be considering banning government employees from using the R1 model. Earlier this week, Nvidia revealed that the government had placed new restrictions on its ability to ship its powerful graphics processing units, which are widely used in AI model training, to China. Nvidia has been told it must secure a special export license to ship its H20 GPUs to China in future, but the difficulty of obtaining said license means the rules essentially amount to a ban on any more exports of the chips. The H20 chip was developed especially for Chinese companies in response to earlier restrictions placed on China, but despite its performance being throttled, it's believed that the chip was used by DeepSeek to train R1 and its other models. It remains to be seen if tighter restrictions will hinder DeepSeek's progress. Critics say the earlier restrictions forced the company to make more efficient models on lower-end processors, and they warn it will only intensify China's efforts to develop its own chips.

DeepSeek poses 'profound' security threat, U.S. house panel claims

Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek is a "profound threat" to U.S. national security, a bipartisan House committee said Wednesday, urging Nvidia to hand over information on sales of chips that the startup may have used to develop its breakthrough chatbot model. The House Select Committee on China alleged in a report Wednesday that DeepSeek's ties to Chinese government interests "are significant," citing corporate filings obtained by the panel. Lawmakers claimed that DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, controls the firm alongside the High-Flyer Quant hedge fund in an "integrated ecosystem" linked to state-linked hardware distributors and Chinese research institute Zhejiang Lab. "Although it presents itself as just another AI chatbot, offering users a way to generate text and answer questions, closer inspection reveals that the app siphons data back to the People's Republic of China (PRC), creates security vulnerabilities for its users, and relies on a model that covertly censors and manipulates information pursuant to Chinese law," the report states.

House Panel Flags DeepSeek as Threat, Eyes Nvidia Sales | PYMNTS.com

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is calling on Nvidia Corp. to provide detailed information on the sale of thousands of its high-performance chips, which may have helped fuel the rise of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company under scrutiny for national security risks. According to Bloomberg, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a report Wednesday warning that DeepSeek poses a "profound threat" to U.S. national security. The report highlights the AI firm's alleged deep connections to Chinese state interests and raises concerns about potential violations of American export controls. Lawmakers say they uncovered evidence suggesting that DeepSeek operates within a broader network involving Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer Quant and Zhejiang Lab, a state-affiliated research institution. This "integrated ecosystem," per Bloomberg, connects the AI company with government-linked hardware suppliers, raising alarms about data security and foreign influence. The committee claims that although DeepSeek markets itself as a typical generative AI chatbot, it covertly sends user data to China and enforces censorship aligned with the Chinese Communist Party's standards. The report also alleges that DeepSeek acquired "tens of thousands" of advanced chips -- potentially in violation of U.S. export laws -- to power its chatbot. Related: Trump Administration Mulls Ban on Chinese AI Chatbot DeepSeek Amid National Security Concerns Drawing on data from analytics firm SemiAnalysis, the report estimates that DeepSeek may currently hold around 60,000 Nvidia processors and is actively seeking "thousands" more, including the newly released H20 AI chips. In response to these concerns, committee chairman John Moolenaar and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi have formally requested that Nvidia disclose any sales of more than 499 AI chips to customers in 11 Asian nations, including Singapore and Malaysia, dating back to 2020. Lawmakers are particularly interested in identifying the end users of these chips and whether they may be linked to DeepSeek or other Chinese government-affiliated entities. Nvidia has until April 30 to respond to the request. In a statement Wednesday, Nvidia affirmed that it adheres strictly to U.S. export regulations. The company emphasized that shipments to Singapore are routed to various destinations, including the United States and Taiwan, and not to China -- a clarification that comes amid mounting scrutiny of cross-border chip sales.

House Select Committee Says DeepSeek Is Threat to US Security | PYMNTS.com

A House select committee recommended Wednesday (April 16) that the government address risk from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models after finding that DeepSeek presents a threat to U.S. security. The House Select Committee on China recommended that the government expand export controls, improve the enforcement of export controls, and "prevent and prepare for strategic surprise related to advanced AI." It said this in an executive summary of a report released Wednesday, "DeepSeek Unmasked: Exposing the CCP's Latest Tool For Spying, Stealing and Subverting U.S. Export Control Restrictions." "This report makes it clear: DeepSeek isn't just another AI app -- it's a weapon in the Chinese Communist Party's arsenal, designed to spy on Americans," Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the chairman of the committee, said in a Wednesday press release. Moolenaar also said in the release that the committee sent a formal letter to Nvidia on Wednesday demanding answers about how the company's chips ended up powering DeepSeek's AI models. In a statement posted on X, Nvidia said that it follows the government's instructions on what it can sell and where "to the letter." "The technology industry supports America when it exports to well-known companies worldwide -- if the government felt otherwise, it would instruct us," the statement said. "Our reported Singapore revenue indicates the billing address, often for subsidiaries of our U.S. customers. The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China." The committee's investigation found that DeepSeek funnels Americans' data to China through back-end infrastructure connected to a Chinese military company and manipulates the results it presents through its AI model to align with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, according to the executive summary. The investigation also found that it is "highly likely" that DeepSeek used unlawful techniques and stole from American AI models when creating its own model and "appears to be" powered by advanced chips from Nvidia that are restricted from export to China, per the summary. Citing research by Graphika, the report also said DeepSeek's AI model was "amplified and celebrated" by social media accounts affiliated with China when it was released.

US mulls penalties to block DeepSeek from buying American technology

The Trump administration is weighing penalties that would block China's DeepSeek from buying U.S. technology and is debating barring Americans' access to its services, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The launch of China's low-cost AI model, DeepSeek, has rattled the AI ecosystem. The U.S. government has since taken steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and its support from chip maker Nvidia. Nvidia's AI chips have been a key focus of U.S. export controls, as U.S. officials aim to prevent the most advanced chips from being sold to China in an effort to maintain a lead in the AI race. The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia's sale of AI chips to China. The U.S. House Select Committee on China said in a report that "it has sent a formal letter to Nvidia demanding answers about sales to China and Southeast Asia to examine whether and how its chips ended up powering DeepSeek's AI models -- despite U.S. export restrictions." Nvidia warned on Tuesday of a $5.5 billion hit after Washington restricted exports of its H20 AI chip to China. The move to restrict H20 shipments is Trump's latest effort to limit China's access to advanced semiconductors. The U.S. has banned exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China since 2022, concerned that advanced technologies could be used by China to build up its military capabilities. DeepSeek, White house and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

US mulls penalties to block DeepSeek from buying American technology, NYT reports

(Reuters) -The Trump administration is weighing penalties that would block China's DeepSeek from buying U.S. technology and debating barring Americans' access to its services, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia's sale of artificial intelligence chips to China. The House Select Committee, which focuses on national security threats from China, opened an investigation into Nvidia's sale of chips across Asia, the report said. It is trying to assess whether the U.S. chipmaker knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop AI, potentially in violation of U.S. rules, the NYT report added. Nvidia warned on Tuesday of a $5.5 billion hit after Washington restricted exports of its AI processor tailored for China. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Priyanka.G in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)