U.S. Delays Adding DeepSeek to Trade Blacklist

The United States is delaying the blacklisting of China’s DeepSeek to avoid increasing tensions with Beijing, Reuters reports.

According to the agency’s sources, Washington is for now refraining from adding the Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek, chipmaker CXMT and more than 100 other companies to a trade blacklist.

These companies, Reuters’ sources say, had already been approved by an interagency committee for inclusion on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List. However, the official decision has been postponed. The administration, they said, is seeking to avoid further escalation in relations with China.

DeepSeek, CXMT and other organizations had previously been cited by U.S. officials as potential national-security threats. In particular, it was alleged that DeepSeek may be linked to China’s military and intelligence structures and had tried to use shell companies to gain access to U.S. chips.

It was also reported that U.S. AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, had detected attempts by Chinese entities to use their models to improve their own developments.

One Reuters source said several Chinese companies were planned for inclusion on the list over supplies for Russian drones found in Poland in September of last year.

Dozens more Chinese companies had previously been identified as security threats over the sale of Nvidia chips to Chinese universities, but they were also not added to the list, a third source said.

According to the outlet, potential targets also included Chinese companies that manufacture and sell drones and robotic “dogs” for the needs of the Chinese military.

Reuters’ sources say at least 75 Chinese organizations in semiconductors and artificial intelligence have already received preliminary approval for blacklisting, but a final decision on them has not yet been made.