The US government has declined to add DeepSeek, the Chinese AI firm that rattled Silicon Valley earlier this year, to its trade blacklists. Despite months of security reviews, congressional legislation, and bans across multiple state governments, federal officials have held off on the kind of sanctions that would formally restrict American companies from doing business with the firm.
More than 100 other entities considered security risks have also avoided being added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List. The decision, or rather the lack of one, comes at a moment when DeepSeek is actively developing its next-generation AI model while US policymakers debate how aggressively to confront China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities.
A patchwork of restrictions, but no knockout punch
The federal inaction stands in sharp contrast to what’s happened at the state level. Starting in January 2025, states including New York, Texas, and Virginia moved to ban DeepSeek from government systems. Multiple federal agencies followed with their own internal restrictions.
Congress got involved too. In February 2025, lawmakers introduced the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, a bill aimed at formalizing restrictions on the firm’s software across government networks.
