DeepSeek and MiniMax clear China's new AI export registration for open-source releases

What happened

DeepSeek and MiniMax, two of China's best-known AI developers, have completed the technology export registration that China introduced on 16 October for advanced AI, and have gone ahead with open-source releases and overseas licensing. The news first came late on Thursday 22 October, Beijing time, from Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with the state broadcaster CCTV. Odaily's relay of the post quotes it as saying the two companies had smoothly completed the registration procedures and finished open-source and overseas authorised use.

On Friday 23 October, MiniMax confirmed its part in a voluntary announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. DeepSeek did not reply to Reuters' request for comment, and has not published its own statement, so its registration rests on the state-media account for now. Reuters described the news as the two companies winning state approval for global use of their models; the companies' own wording, as far as it is public, is about registration rather than an approval or licence.

Yuyuan Tantian followed up on Friday with a post saying overseas internet users had urged other Chinese open-source large language models to follow suit, according to Reuters.

What MiniMax's filing says

MiniMax's filing is short. Signed by chairman Yan Junjie and dated 23 October, it says the company has duly completed the technology export registration procedures with the Ministry of Commerce required for the open-source release and overseas licensing of certain recently released and upcoming models. It cites Announcement No. 48 of 2026 from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology as the basis.

The filing does not name the models. The most recent public one is MiniMax M3.1 Flash, released on 19 October with open weights promised but not dated, so the registration covers the kind of release MiniMax has said it plans. The company also says it is not aware of any inside information that needs disclosure, and warns shareholders to be cautious when trading its shares, standard language for a voluntary business update in Hong Kong.

The rule they registered under

Announcement No. 48 is the draft revision of China's catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export. As AI Lookout reported on 16 October, it adds 23 AI items covering large models, agents, computing clusters and information processing. The restricted model entry covers weights, checkpoints, source code and training methods for models trained with at least 10^26 operations, with at least 2 trillion parameters, or ranked in the global top 10. The public can comment until 15 November.

Most of the catalogue is still a proposal, but one part took effect at once. From 16 October until the revised catalogue is final, anyone exporting a listed technology must register it beforehand on the commerce ministry's technology-trade platform, including deals already under way. Exporters decide for themselves whether a deal is in scope. Releasing new weights to the world or licensing them to a foreign partner can count as an export, which is why MiniMax registered before its next releases.

How the registration path works

The commerce ministry's spokesperson Q&A set out the lighter path these companies appear to have used. For restricted AI technology, it said open-sourcing, Chinese companies' own computing centres abroad, chip tape-out at foreign fabs, joint research with foreign resources and work on international standards would get automatic licensing and other facilitation, which the ministry described as cleared almost as soon as they are filed. Technology already in the public domain through open-source releases or academic papers is outside the catalogue.

The ministry also said offering a model to foreign users through API calls, apps, web interfaces, SaaS or lightweight on-device deployment is not a technology export, even if the model behind the service would be restricted. Taiwan's Economic Daily News restated that exemption on 25 October. In practice, then, registration matters for two things: putting new weights into the open, and licensing models or know-how to foreign partners. That matches the two activities DeepSeek and MiniMax are said to have completed: open-source release and overseas licensing.

How the market and industry read it

Yuyuan Tantian framed the episode as proof that the catalogue is about drawing boundaries rather than simply restricting AI exports. It noted that the commerce ministry's Q&A explained what would not be regulated more fully and specifically than what would. The South China Morning Post summarised the account's message the same way: the measures are meant to set clearer regulatory boundaries, not to shut the door on Chinese AI exports.

Investors seemed to agree. Economic Daily News reported that MiniMax shares rose nearly 17% and Zhipu's more than 8% on Friday, a rare jump after months of declines. The Shanghai-based STAR Market Daily quoted an unnamed chief computer-industry analyst at a large brokerage as saying the registrations show the overseas path for general-purpose open-source models has become clearer, even as core sensitive technology is tightly controlled. The founder of an unnamed AI startup selling to overseas businesses told the paper that smaller vendors had long struggled with vague compliance boundaries, and predicted more open-source model makers would now register.

What it means for users of Chinese open models

For developers and companies outside China, the news is mostly reassuring in the short term. Hosted access through APIs and apps was never covered, and models already published stay in the public domain. What the registrations add is evidence that the route for new open-weight releases works: two prominent labs filed and released without, as far as is public, any delay or refusal.

That matters because several Chinese releases are pending. MiniMax has promised M3.1 Flash weights, and Moonshot has said open weights for Kimi K3.1 Pro are due by 4 November; Moonshot has not said whether it has registered. DeepSeek, which reportedly raised about $15 billion this month, has released open weights regularly. Each lab still has to decide whether a new model crosses the catalogue's lines on compute, parameter count, ranking or sensitive capabilities such as cyber offence, where open-sourcing is not covered by the lighter path.

There is also a cost in transparency. Companies outside China that license Chinese models or hire Chinese labs for custom work now face a deal that may need registration, and later a licence, on the Chinese side. That adds paperwork to cross-border partnerships, even if the process is fast.

What is still unclear

Several basic facts are missing. Neither the commerce ministry nor DeepSeek has published which models were registered, when the filings were made, or whether any conditions were attached. MiniMax only says certain recently released and upcoming models are covered. It is not clear whether registration in these cases amounted to the automatic licence the ministry promised for open source, or simply the advance filing that applies to every listed export.

The rules themselves can still change. The catalogue is a consultation draft until at least 15 November, and thresholds, exemptions and definitions such as the top-10 ranking test may be revised before a final version, which has no effective date yet. Two well-resourced companies with close attention from state media are also not a typical test. Smaller labs, foreign-owned teams in China and releases that sit near a threshold will show whether the process is as predictable as Yuyuan Tantian suggests.

Why it matters

Within a week of announcing export controls on advanced AI, Beijing has shown, through two flagship companies, that open-source releases and overseas licensing can continue under a registration system. For now that keeps Chinese open-weight models flowing to developers abroad. It also gives the state a record of every such release, and a ready mechanism to tighten if the final catalogue, or future policy, draws the lines more narrowly.