ChainCatcher reported, citing Reuters, that people familiar with the matter said the US government has currently paused the addition of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, and more than 100 other companies labeled as “national security risks” to the US Commerce Department’s trade blacklist, known as the Entity List. According to the report, the Trump administration’s move is aimed at avoiding a further increase in tensions with Beijing.
Commerce Department list updates have been stalled since last October
The Entity List is administered by the US Commerce Department. Companies placed on it face restrictions when seeking access to certain US technologies, products or services. In the group described by Reuters, DeepSeek and CXMT were specifically named, while more than 100 additional firms were described as having been marked as “national security risks.”
The report said the relevant companies had already received approval for listing from a US interagency committee last year. However, the Commerce Department has not publicly released new additions to the Entity List since last October. Reuters noted that this represents the longest pause in updates in more than a decade.
Other Chinese firms tied to drones and restricted chips remain off the list
In addition to DeepSeek, CXMT and the other marked companies, the report also referenced other Chinese firms that had been identified as potential sanctions targets. The issues cited included alleged provision of equipment related to Russian drones, sales of restricted Nvidia chips to Chinese universities, and manufacturing of unmanned equipment for the Chinese military.
As described in the Reuters report, those companies have not yet been formally added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List. The report linked the delay to the Trump administration’s effort to avoid worsening tensions with Beijing, while the disclosed information is limited to the account from people familiar with the matter and the fact that Entity List updates have been stalled since last October.