House panel calls DeepSeek ‘profound threat,’ says it collects Americans’ data for China

The Chinese artificial intelligence chatbot DeepSeek poses a major national security threat to the United States through stealing Americans’ personal data, according to a new report by a House panel on the Chinese Communist Party.

The investigative report by the House Select Committee on the CCP states that the user data is being covertly funneled to the ruling party and is used to manipulate information on the platform so it aligns with propaganda.

DeepSeek was also trained in the use of its automatic digital conversations using material obtained illegally from U.S. AI models, the report said.

House investigators also discovered that DeepSeek hardware utilizes “tens of thousands” of Nvidia microchips, including some that are restricted to export to China.

“This report makes it clear: DeepSeek isn’t just another AI app — it’s a weapon in the Chinese Communist Party’s arsenal, designed to spy on Americans, steal our technology, and subvert U.S. law,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, Michigan Republican and the panel chairman.

The 18-page bipartisan report was released together with ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Democrat.

The report concluded that DeepSeek poses a “profound threat” to U.S. security and recommended tightening export restrictions to prevent U.S. technology from helping Chinese AI, and taking steps to prevent “strategic surprise” through the use of the app.

“The potential for AI strategic surprise is most acute in the national security space,” the report said. “An AI weaponized and deployed by a U.S. adversary may prove to be a decisive advantage before a conflict starts.”

Mr. Moolenaar said DeepSeek reportedly is using Nvidia chips that should not be under CCP control.

“That’s why we’re sending a letter to Nvidia to demand answers. American innovation should never be the engine of our adversaries’ ambitions,” he said.

Committee investigators who studied DeepSeek activities found that 85% of the app’s responses to chatbot queries were manipulated to block or alter content related to democracy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and human rights.

The manipulated software was not disclosed to app users.

DeepSeek is owned by a CCP-affiliated company and emerged earlier this year as a low-cost competitor to U.S. AI models. It is said to run on less powerful hardware.

The committee report said DeepSeek was founded by Chinese national Liang Wenfeng and controlled by him through a company called Ningbo Cheng’en and several other firms.

“The company operates within the state-subsidized ’Hangzhou Chengxi Science and Technology Innovation Corridor,’ a government initiative explicitly guided by Xi Jinping Thought, the guiding ideology of the CCP, that aims to create China’s answer to Silicon Valley,” the report said.

According to the report, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang ordered Nvidia to design a specially modified microchip that aimed to exploit a loophole in U.S. export controls that allowed sales to China of AI chips.

The Trump administration is seeking to close the export loophole.

An Nvidia spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A DeepSeek spokesman could not be reached for comment.

On data collection, the report said DeepSeek gathers extensive personal data on Americans who use the chatbot, including their chat history, device details, and how a person types.

The data is then sent back to China creating what the report said is a “a pipeline of problematic foreign data access.”

“All data uploaded to servers in [China] is subject to the country’s sweeping cybersecurity and intelligence laws, which compel companies to share data with state authorities,” the report said.

The app also integrated tracking tools from Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance, owner of TikTok, Baidu, and Tencent.

The companies have been identified by the U.S. government as raising national security concerns.

“This entangles DeepSeek’s data harvesting architecture with PRC companies known for their roles in surveillance and CCP control, heightening the risk that foreign adversary entities could gain access to Americans’ private information,” the report said.

DeepSeek software is also linked to China Mobile, the state-owned telecommunications company that the Pentagon has designated as a Chinese military company.

China Mobile is tasked by the CCP to support large-scale information control and intelligence objectives, the report said.

The censorship activities of DeepSeek automatically filter and erase unwanted user responses before they can be posted. Internal directed biases also systematically distort overall behavior.

“The platform is designed to ensure the AI aligns with the CCP’s ideological and political objectives,” the report said, noting that those remain “core socialist values” — a euphemism for communism, and “correct political direction” on topics like Taiwan, Tibet and human rights abuses against Uyghurs.