In a sweeping move that escalates tensions in the global artificial intelligence race, the United States has ordered the full removal of AI technology developed by Chinese firm DeepSeek from nearly all federal civilian government systems, according to a public order issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The ban, which took effect at the end of July but was only disclosed to the public this week, prohibits civilian agencies across the federal government—including the Treasury Department, State Department and Department of Justice—from using any DeepSeek tools or any technology built using DeepSeek’s open-source AI models. Notably, the restriction does not apply to agencies under the Department of Defense, a detail that has not been explained by DHS officials.
The action comes amid growing criticism of Chinese AI development from the Trump administration and leading U.S. AI firms, even as DHS has not publicly outlined specific security vulnerabilities tied to DeepSeek. The White House has ramped up rhetorical pressure on Chinese AI companies throughout 2025, with President Donald Trump repeatedly identifying China as Washington’s primary strategic rival in the AI sector, a technology he has framed as critical to long-term U.S. economic and national security. Earlier this year, White House technology advisor Michael Kratsios wrote in an internal memo that Chinese rivals have been engaged in widespread “malicious exploitation” of intellectual property developed by U.S. AI companies.
Two of the biggest U.S. AI developers, Anthropic and OpenAI—both preparing for initial public offerings in the coming months—have publicly accused DeepSeek and other Chinese AI firms of directly copying proprietary core model architectures developed by U.S. companies. DeepSeek has not yet publicly responded to these allegations, and as of Tuesday, requests for comment have been sent to DHS, DeepSeek, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C., with no official statements released by any of the three parties.
DeepSeek has rapidly emerged as a disruptive force in the global AI ecosystem since its first public launch in early 2025, driven by its open-source business model that makes its core models free for most developers to access and adapt. For startups and independent developers, the cost of building tools on DeepSeek models is just a small fraction of the cost of licensing closed, proprietary models from U.S. providers like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. The cost advantage extends to DeepSeek’s own development: the company revealed last year that it spent just $6 million to train its original flagship model, compared to the roughly $100 million price tag for OpenAI’s GPT-4 training. That announcement sent shockwaves through global tech markets last year, dragging AI-related stock prices down as investors re-evaluated the cost of competing in large model development.
DeepSeek’s popularity has surged in recent months, even amid growing political scrutiny in the U.S. Its free consumer chatbot ranks among the most downloaded apps in Apple’s U.S. App Store, and its models have already been integrated into customer-facing products from major U.S. tech companies including Snowflake, Vercel and OpenRouter. Just last week, the company released its newest updated model, which has garnered widespread praise from developer communities online for outperforming OpenAI’s most advanced tools on common tasks like software coding.
The ban marks the most significant restriction the U.S. has placed on a major Chinese AI provider to date, and it comes as the Trump administration is weighing additional restrictions on Chinese AI access to U.S. cloud infrastructure and venture capital funding. Industry analysts warn the ban could complicate cross-border AI collaboration and raise costs for thousands of U.S. startups that rely on DeepSeek’s low-cost open-source tools, even as the administration frames the move as critical to protecting U.S. technological advantage.