U.S. lawmakers are weighing measures to limit the increasing use of Chinese-developed AI models by domestic companies as geopolitical competition over artificial intelligence continues to intensify.
Artificial intelligence has become a major battleground in the strategic competition between the United States and China, with both countries racing to establish leadership in the rapidly evolving sector.
Chinese-developed AI models are increasingly being adopted by U.S. companies as they narrow the performance gap with their American counterparts while offering lower operating costs.
In April, the Trump administration accused Chinese organisations of carrying out “industrial-scale campaigns” to steal U.S. artificial intelligence technology and said it would consider measures to hold those responsible accountable. Meanwhile, China is reportedly considering restrictions on overseas access to its most advanced AI models, according to Reuters.
The growing use of Chinese-developed AI models has prompted renewed concern among U.S. lawmakers, with calls for measures to slow the trend, including an ongoing investigation by two committees in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The growing use of Chinese AI models by U.S. companies raises serious concerns,” a State Department spokesperson told CNBC. Those “AI models are designed to advance Beijing’s narratives, censor dissent, and reflect CCP ideology and values.”
Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the U.K. embassy of the People’s Republic of China said the country “opposes baseless allegations and malicious smears against its AI development,” adding that “China’s thriving AI sector is built on self-reliance and strength in science and technology.”
In April, the United States House Committee on Homeland Security and the United States House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party announced a joint investigation into the increasing use of Chinese-developed AI models. As part of the inquiry, the committee chairmen sent letters to Cursor and Airbnb seeking information about their “use of or exposure to these risks” through AI technology developed in China.
“The Chinese Communist Party is no longer just nipping at our heels in artificial intelligence; it is racing to close the gap in some of the exact capabilities that will shape the future of cybersecurity,” Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNBC.
“Recent reporting that a Chinese open-weight model can match leading U.S. models in certain vulnerability discovery and cybersecurity tasks is highly alarming,” said Garbarino.
Although several U.S. government agencies have prohibited the use of Chinese AI models, including DeepSeek, there is no nationwide ban preventing American companies from adopting them. Some technology executives, including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Flo Crivello, have publicly backed the use of Chinese AI models as a way to cut operating costs.
Cursor, a company set to be acquired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a $60 billion deal, developed its Composer 2 model using Kimi, an AI model created by Moonshot AI in China. When contacted by CNBC about the congressional investigation, the company declined to comment.
Airbnb told CNBC that its “AI activity runs overwhelmingly on U.S.-origin models.” The company added that it uses a “limited number of China-origin models, all of which are open-source and run only through approved U.S.-based service providers, keeping data and operations separate and protected.”
