The artificial intelligence (AI) firm is "willingly providing and will likely continue to provide support to China’s military and intelligence operations", it has been claimed.
DeepSeek is said to have bypassed US export restrictions on Nvidia’s flagship H100 chips - essential processors for training large-scale AI models - by routing orders through shell companies in Southeast Asia.
While DeepSeek claims it procures lower-spec H800 chips, US officials argue that procurement records tie H100s to China’s People’s Liberation Army and related entities.
It has also been claimed that DeepSeek shared user data and usage statistics with Chinese government agencies.
Chinese law mandates data access upon request, but US concerns centre on whether data has already been handed over for surveillance or profiling purposes.
Documents uncovered by Reuters show DeepSeek appears over 150 times in procurement records for the PLA and affiliated research institutes. The system is also reportedly used in military medical facilities to support diagnostics and training.
Analysts describe DeepSeek’s tools as part of a significant shift in battlefield AI capabilities - potentially aiding functions such as predictive operations, real-time analysis and autonomous weapon control - even though the full extent of deployment is unclear.
In response to these developments, several US agencies have barred DeepSeek on federal devices, and lawmakers are pursuing tougher export controls, chip tracking requirements, and broader bans on foreign AI platforms.
