US delays adding DeepSeek, 100+ Chinese firms to List

The United States government has not added the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek or more than 100 other entities flagged as national security risks to its trade blacklist, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision, which also involves China’s top memory chipmaker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), reflects a broader pause in updating the Commerce Department’s Entity List since October 2025, the longest such gap in over a decade.

DeepSeek and CXMT were among companies approved for addition to the list by an interagency committee last year, but the Commerce Department has not published the updates. The Entity List restricts U.S. companies from shipping goods, software, and technology to listed firms without a license, which is typically denied. The lack of new listings has raised concerns among analysts that American technology could be reaching adversaries.

DeepSeek, which gained global attention in early 2025 with a low-cost AI model, has been accused by U.S. officials of supporting China’s military and intelligence operations and of attempting to use Southeast Asian shell companies to illegally access advanced U.S. chips. This year, the U.S....