WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is weighing penalties that would block China’s DeepSeek from buying US technology and is debating barring Americans’ access to its services, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The launch of China’s low-cost AI model, DeepSeek, has rattled the AI ecosystem. The US government has since taken steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and its support from chip maker Nvidia.

Nvidia’s AI chips have been a key focus of US export controls, as officials aim to prevent the most advanced chips from being sold to China in an effort to maintain a lead in the AI race.

The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia’s sale of AI chips to China.

The US House Select Committee on China said in a report that “it has sent a formal letter to Nvidia demanding answers about sales to China and Southeast Asia to examine whether and how its chips ended up powering DeepSeek’s AI models despite US export restrictions”.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2025