The US Department of Homeland Security made public on 19 Oct (US time) an order, issued on 24 Jul, removing DeepSeek products from federal civilian IT systems. According to the Congressional Research Service, it follows a Department of Defense order on 8 Sep and extends to federal contractors.
It matters for any company with US federal contracts, which may need to keep DeepSeek out of that work. Where China-origin weights are ruled out, open models of other origins are available.
What happened
On Monday 19 October 2026 (US time) the US Department of Homeland Security made public an order, first issued on 24 July, requiring DeepSeek products to be removed from federal civilian IT systems and barring agencies from buying them. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), it follows a Department of Defense order on 8 September, and the restriction extends to federal contractors.
Who it affects
The order binds US federal agencies and, according to CRS, their contractors. It does not directly bind companies outside that chain, for example a firm in Hong Kong with no US federal work. It is relevant to any business that holds, or bids for, US federal contracts.
Our view
Check whether any of your contracts flow down US federal requirements before choosing a China-origin model. Where China-origin weights are ruled out, open models of other origins are available, for example Gemma 4 31B (Google, US) and Recursive Flint (Recursive, US) at the small, fast end, and Muse Spark Open (Meta, US) and Reflection Beam 1.0 (Reflection AI, US) at the large end. See the Open-weight model tracker for licences and sizes.
Separately, Hong Kong's privacy regulator (PCPD, 16 Mar 2026) asks organisations to give agentic AI minimum access rights and to use official builds only, which is sound practice wherever you are.
Further reading: Removing PRC AI models from federal agencies (CRS In Focus IF13336).
Why it matters: Firms that hold or bid for US federal work should check their contract chain; if DeepSeek is ruled out, open models of other origins are available.
Sources: CNBC, “U.S. bans DeepSeek from government agency systems amid AI rift with China”, Jenny Lee and Kai Nicol-Schwarz, 20 Oct 2026; Congressional Research Service, “Removing PRC Artificial Intelligence Models from Federal Agencies”, 27 Oct 2026