Why specifically DeepSeek, when there's a whole cohort of Chinese open weights models? GLM, Qwen, Kimi, Minimax, etc.

DeepSeek is just the one with name recognition from the critters in congress. Remember when Nvidia stock had it's so-called "deepseek moment"? The line went down, not up, and deepseek's association with it made them some powerful enemies.

Nobody in congress knows what a "Minimax" is, so they're safe from discrimination, for now.

The others aren't risks to incoming IPO's, yet ;)

They'll go after those too. Give it a minute.

It is THE competitor right now when it comes to price and intelligence. Also, just banning it plants fear in other sponsors and investors. When they do it like this, they can pretend that this is not a part of regulatory capture but it is an actual security concern because "this one in particular is dangerous" and "we'll tell you when others become dangerous" which will happen when they become a competition (now less likely because investors are cautious).

Testing waters, i think

Same reason they attacked Huawei, Tiktok, DJI, BYD... they became too well-known.

What the western elites fear above all else is Chinese brands getting recognizable and popular.