The US government has delayed adding AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), and more than 100 Chinese companies to the Commerce Department’s Entity List despite approval from an interagency committee in 2025 [1, 2, 3]. The Entity List update has not been published since October 2025, marking the longest gap of over a decade without new designations [1, 2].

At least 75 of the companies approved for blacklisting operate in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, equipment production, or AI model development but remain undeclared publicly [1, 3, 4]. US businesses cannot ship goods, software, or technology to entities on the list without licenses, which are rarely granted [2, 3]. DeepSeek gained global attention in January 2025 for its low-cost AI model but is accused by US officials of supporting Chinese military and intelligence activities and using Southeast Asian shell firms to illegally access advanced US chips [2, 4]. CXMT, one of China’s leading memory chipmakers, was previously designated by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military company under the Biden administration [2, 5].

Jeffrey Kessler, US Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industry and Security, began avoiding new Chinese Entity List additions in late 2025 to prevent escalating US-China tensions [1, 3]. Multiple other Chinese companies faced potential blacklisting for supplying Russian drones, selling restricted Nvidia chips to universities, or building military drones and robotic dogs [1, 4]. The delay has raised concerns of technology leakage to US rivals and weakening export controls. Philip Luck, CSIS Global Supply Chain researcher, said, "The Entity List is like a whack-a-mole game — lacking new sanctions may let US technologies flow to opponents and be used against the US" [1].

Anthropic and OpenAI reported DeepSeek’s attempts to illicitly extract technology from their AI models [2]. The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security declined to comment on the delay but stated, "We use many policy and enforcement tools, including the Entity List, daily to combat bad actors" [2].

The last public update to the US Entity List was in October 2025. The next scheduled review or update date has not been announced amid ongoing efforts to balance export controls with diplomatic tensions [1, 6].