US targets DeepSeek and its American chip supplier Nvidia

Two months after DeepSeek, China’s artificial intelligence star, rattled Washington and shook Wall Street, US officials are taking steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and to snare its American chipmaker, Nvidia.

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The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia’s sale of AI chips to China. It also is weighing penalties that could block DeepSeek from using US technology and debating to bar any Americans’ as senior US officers, said three people with knowledge of the actions who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Congressional leaders are also putting pressure on Nvidia. On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which focuses on national security threats from China, opened an investigation into Nvidia’s sales of chips to China. It is trying to assess whether the US chipmaker knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop AI, potentially in violation of US rules.

It is the first congressional investigation into Nvidia’s dealings. It comes as the Trump administration wrestles with how to implement a Biden-era rule that limits the number of AI chips that companies can send to designated countries.

The attack on DeepSeek and Nvidia are an outgrowth of fear in Washington that China could leapfrog the United States in AI, which would have wideranging implications for national security and geopolitics. If China took the lead, it could more quickly use AI systems to design next-generation weapons like autonomous missiles and drones. It also could persuade other countries to use its technology network of AI systems and infrastructure, weakening US influence across the world.