House Panel Flags DeepSeek as Threat, Eyes Nvidia Sales

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.

Source: Bloomberg