Reuters: DeepSeek shares user data with Chinese military, U.S. official says

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is assisting China’s military and intelligence agencies, according to Reuters, citing a senior U.S. official.

The source claims DeepSeek shares user information and usage statistics with Chinese authorities — a practice that, in their view, goes “beyond open-source access to DeepSeek's AI models.”

The company appears in more than 150 procurement records related to China’s military and state-linked defense organizations. According to the official, DeepSeek has provided “technology services” to Chinese army research institutes.

The U.S. source also alleges that the startup used front companies in Southeast Asia to evade export restrictions and obtain advanced American chips — including Nvidia’s H100 GPUs, which have been banned from import to China since 2022.

For now, the U.S. does not plan to impose further sanctions against China, the source added. DeepSeek did not comment on the Reuters report.