Latest: DHS Orders DeepSeek Removed From All Federal Civilian IT Systems
The order binds the entire federal civilian executive branch and its contractors, extending beyond DeepSeek's own products to any vendor that has embedded DeepSeek components. The Huawei chip collaboration reported by The Information adds a supply-chain dimension to the national security framing behind the ban.
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The Department of Homeland Security issued FASCSA Exclusion and Removal Order #2026-01, filed under docket number DHS-2026-0628, directing all federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and halt future procurement. The order extends to third-party products or services built using DeepSeek's model or underlying implementations, meaning rebranded versions are equally covered. No public compliance deadline is set; the GSA and individual agency CIOs will issue follow-up timelines. Agencies seeking exceptions must file a request 60 days in advance with compelling justification, and federal software vendors face an obligation to audit which open-weight models are embedded in their products.
Separately, The Information reported that DeepSeek is working with Huawei to help shape the design of Huawei's future AI chips, and that DeepSeek is preparing an IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market with a debut planned for 2027.
Interconnects found that DHS's October 19 order barring DeepSeek from federal IT systems does not resolve whether it reaches finetuned models or models trained on DeepSeek outputs, citing Nvidia's Nemotron as an example of the gap.
The Information separately reported that DeepSeek is working with Huawei to help shape the design of Huawei's future AI chips, a supply chain dimension the order does not address.
DHS published FASCSA Exclusion and Removal Order #2026-01 on October 19, 2026, requiring all federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products, including rebranded third-party versions built on DeepSeek's model.
DHS cited two risks: cloud-hosted services store data on Chinese servers subject to compelled disclosure, and locally-hosted deployments may contain malware, with DHS stating 'US hosting doesn't get you out'. Federal contractors must also inventory affected systems and report remediation to the Federal Acquisition Security Council, with no public compliance deadline set pending GSA and agency CIO guidance.
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BackgroundGoverning AI: liability, regulation and geopolitics
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