Key facts
- China's Cyberspace Administration is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI.
- Anthropic alleges Moonshot routed over 23 million exchanges to Claude via fraudulent accounts.
- DeepSeek allegedly generated over 12.1 million exchanges in a 14-day window in July.
- Regulators are investigating if sensitive police, military, and state-linked corporate data was sent to U.S. servers.
- Anthropic's September 10 report accused seven Chinese labs of "illicit distillation" of its outputs.
- DeepSeek is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on AI risks this week.
- Moonshot confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO targeting $3 billion.
China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has opened an investigation into AI firms DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, following allegations that they secretly routed sensitive user data to Anthropic's servers. The probe was triggered by Anthropic's September 10 threat intelligence report, which accused seven China-based AI labs of "illicit distillation" – training smaller models on larger ones' outputs, often through fraudulent accounts.
Officials from the CAC reportedly visited the offices of both DeepSeek and Moonshot to interview executives and staff, seeking to determine if police, military, and state-linked corporate data was transferred to U.S. servers. While Anthropic's report initially named seven companies, the investigation has since narrowed to focus specifically on DeepSeek and Moonshot.
The timing of the investigation is particularly challenging for both companies. DeepSeek is scheduled to brief the United Nations Security Council on AI risks this week, sharing a stage with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Separately, Moonshot AI confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO on September 3, aiming to raise $3 billion at a $50 billion valuation. Any disclosed regulatory investigation would need to be included in its prospectus before the listing can proceed.