# Allegations of AI data redirection by Chinese firms

> Live situation record from CLSTR: https://clstr.news/situations/allegations-of-ai-data-redirection-by-chinese-firms
> Updated: 2026-09-22T14:51:48.000Z. Sources: 22. Developments: 2.

Moonshot AI has come under scrutiny following allegations from Anthropic regarding its Kimi K3 artificial intelligence model. Anthropic claims the company used thousands of accounts to route approximately 300,000 user queries to its own Claude models, presenting the responses as Moonshot’s own work.

Following these allegations, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched an investigation into Moonshot AI and DeepSeek. A September 2026 threat intelligence report from Anthropic expanded these claims, alleging that several Chinese firms engaged in “illicit distillation.” Specifically, Anthropic alleged that DeepSeek rerouted over 12.1 million queries to Claude within a 14-day period in July to capture the model’s “thinking signature” for cheaper training.

In response, Chinese regulators have summoned representatives from seven companies, including Alibaba, Xiaomi, and SenseTime, to investigate potential data security breaches. While Anthropic alleges the redirection was intended to extract reasoning traces and safety measures for domestic model training, Beijing is investigating whether sensitive Chinese data—including information related to military, police, and state-linked corporate entities—was inadvertently transferred to American servers.

The situation has escalated into a geopolitical dispute. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that sanctions could be imposed on Chinese-origin models if technology theft is proven, citing the presence of American AI watermarks in Chinese models.

## Claims

- The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has launched an investigation into DeepSeek and Moonshot AI regarding data security. (corroborated by 6 sources)
- Anthropic accused seven Chinese AI companies of using illicit distillation to train their models using Claude's outputs. (corroborated by 4 sources)
- Chinese regulators have visited the offices of DeepSeek and Moonshot AI to interview executives and employees. (corroborated by 4 sources)
- The investigation aims to determine if sensitive Chinese military, police, or corporate data was transferred to U.S. servers. (corroborated by 4 sources)
- DeepSeek reportedly rerouted over 12.1 million user queries to Claude within a 14-day period in July. (corroborated by 3 sources)
- Moonshot AI allegedly forwarded approximately 300,000 customer requests to Claude using thousands of fraudulent accounts. (corroborated by 3 sources)

## Timeline

### 2026-09-22: China probes DeepSeek and Moonshot AI over data routing allegations

China is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI after Anthropic accused them of routing user queries to Claude to illicitly train their own AI models.

14 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/china-investigates-deepseek-and-moonshot-ai-over-data-redirection-claims

### 2026-09-12: Moonshot AI faces allegations as NASA and IBM launch lunar AI model

Moonshot AI faces allegations from Anthropic regarding model routing, while NASA and IBM launch a lunar AI model and Tesla prepares a Roadster reveal.

9 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/moonshot-ai-faces-allegations-as-nasa-and-ibm-launch-lunar-ai-model

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Cite as: Allegations of AI data redirection by Chinese firms. CLSTR, https://clstr.news/situations/allegations-of-ai-data-redirection-by-chinese-firms