The Cyberspace Administration of China is investigating AI companies DeepSeek and Moonshot for potentially transferring sensitive user information to the U.S. AI lab Anthropic. The probe examines reports that Moonshot routed more than 23 million exchanges to Claude between May and July and that DeepSeek sent over 12 million requests in a 14 day period in July. These suspected leaks included surveillance footage tracking people via police cameras in Chengdu, including sites located outside People's Liberation Army facilities and defense linked institutes.

The internet regulator initially summoned representatives from seven companies, including Alibaba, Xiaomi, SenseTime, MiniMax, and Zhipu, for questioning before focusing the inquiry on DeepSeek and Moonshot. The investigation explores potential violations of Chinese data security laws governing the cross border transfer of domestic police and military records. No penalties have been announced while the regulatory process remains ongoing.