The Trump administration has banned US government agencies from using DeepSeek’s products, Bloomberg reports. The Chinese AI startup that shook up the model race in early 2025 is now formally unwelcome on federal civilian networks.
What the directive actually does
The order came from the Department of Homeland Security on October 19, 2026. It requires civilian federal agencies to stop using DeepSeek products and services, citing national security concerns.
DHS laid out several potential threat vectors. These include the unauthorized transfer of sensitive data to China, intelligence gathering on US persons, and the introduction of malware or security vulnerabilities through DeepSeek’s models.
The action is filed under Docket No. DHS-2026-0628. The finalized order was announced in the Federal Register on October 20, 2026, and agencies are required to comply immediately.
The order aligns with the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018. That law supports efforts to protect national interests in how the federal government buys goods and services.
The scope is deliberately narrow. The ban applies to civilian agencies and does not, for now, extend into broader export controls or place DeepSeek on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
How DeepSeek got here
DeepSeek was founded in July 2023 as a spinoff from High-Flyer, a hedge fund. It quickly gained ground against US competitors on AI model performance.
The breakout moment was the release of its R1 model in early 2025. That launch put the company on the radar of Silicon Valley and, soon after, on the radar of Washington.
Federal scrutiny did not start with this order. Individual agencies, including the Commerce Department and the Navy, had already put their own restrictions in place.
States moved too. New York and Tennessee are among those that imposed limits, and some agencies had been pointing to national security risks since early 2025.
A DHS memo that came before the ban had flagged ongoing monitoring of DeepSeek’s activities.
The company’s situation has also shifted on the business side. DeepSeek has reportedly received external funding in 2026.
Meanwhile, internal approval for adding DeepSeek to the Commerce Entity List may have occurred in June 2026. That possibility has not been confirmed as a final action, but it suggests the scrutiny is still evolving.
What this means for the AI market and agencies
The most immediate impact lands on federal IT teams. Any civilian agency that experimented with DeepSeek models now has to audit its systems and switch to alternatives.
The key thing to watch is whether the narrower civilian ban becomes a stepping stone. The ban stops short of export controls and the Entity List today, but the reported June 2026 internal approval keeps that door open.
For now, the federal government has drawn its line at its own networks. Private companies and individual users remain outside the order’s reach, at least under this directive.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.