Trump Admin Reportedly Weighing Chinese AI Crackdown After Beijing Closes Gap

Trump Admin Reportedly Weighing Chinese AI Crackdown After Beijing Closes Gap. Axios reported Monday that the Trump administration is considering tighter restrictions on advanced Chinese open-source AI models after Chinese systems reportedly outperformed U.S. options. Moonshot AI, based in Beijing, released Kimi K3, which the report says performs on par with America’s most advanced models, reigniting interest in banning such releases. A White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the administration aims to support a U.S. open-source ecosystem while strengthening security. The Commerce Department considered adding many Chinese labs to the Entity List and drafted a rule to use supply-chain authorities to limit open-source access, according to Axios and an anonymous source. The article also cites a government approach relying on procurement rules, threats of Entity List listings, and public pressure, while noting that Anthropic has accused DeepSeek, Moonshot, and Minimax of “distillation.”