The U.S. government has held off on adding more than 100 Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek and memory chipmaker CXMT, on a trade blacklist to avoid raising tensions with Beijing, Reuters reported Wednesday.
The firms were flagged for inclusion to the Commerce Department's Entity List due to national security risks.
According to Reuters, the U.S. government believes DeepSeek supported China's military and intelligence operations and tried to illegally access advanced U.S. chips through Southeast Asian shell companies.
CXMT was similarly designated as a Chinese military company by the Biden administration but is yet to be added to the list, the report said.
DeepSeek and CXMT did not immediately respond to requests for comment by.
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