IC Oversight & Policy — 2026-08-03

House Chairmen Expand PRC AI Investigation to DoorDash as OSTP Reveals Chinese Firms Covert Distillation of American AI Models

BLUFCongressional expansion of the PRC AI probe to DoorDash, paired with OSTP's covert distillation disclosure, is unlikely to produce the requested in-person briefing by August 21 but will accelerate legislative pressure on commercial adoption of Chinese models.

House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino and House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar sent DoorDash a letter this week requesting information on its evaluation and use of PRC-developed open-weight AI models, extending a joint investigation that began in April with letters to Cursor-maker Anysphere and Airbnb 12. The letter, addressed to DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, cites a post by co-founder Andy Fang describing the company's use of Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.6 model for lower-level AI tasks, and demands a complete list of all Chinese AI models used and all security testing records by August 14 plus an in-person briefing from staff overseeing AI infrastructure, security, and procurement by August 21 234. Separately, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios stated on July 22 that Moonshot may have run a covert platform conducting large-scale distillation against American AI models using systems it was not authorized to obtain 1. DoorDash said it "looks forward to engaging with the Committees" on its use of both American and open-weight AI models 3.

Analysis
DoorDash producing its AI infrastructure, security, and procurement staff for an in-person briefing by August 21 is unlikely, since the Anysphere and Airbnb precedent since April shows the committees settling for written exchanges characterized as "productive" with no staff appearances reported. Confidence in this judgment is low, given only two prior cases informing the timeline and no published briefing schedule from DoorDash. Reporting rests on a single primary account, the House Select Committee on the CCP's press release, with CNBC and the South China Morning Post amplifying rather than independently corroborating its contents. The letter may function primarily as political messaging building a legislative record on open-weight AI risk rather than a genuine enforcement predicate against DoorDash, and OSTP's disclosure of Moonshot's alleged covert distillation of American models sharpens the stakes by adding a supply-chain dimension absent from the April probe. If staff fail to appear, lawmakers must decide whether to escalate to compulsory process or let engagement lapse as before.

4 sources

Chairmen Garbarino, Moolenaar Continue Joint Investigation Into Security Risks Posed by PRC Open-Weight AI Models - House Homeland Security Committee
House Committees Investigate DoorDash's Use of Chinese AI: A Recipe for Risk - House Select Committee on the CCP
U.S. lawmakers request information from DoorDash on use of Chinese AI models - CNBC
US lawmakers investigate DoorDash's use of Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.6 model - South China Morning Post