The Secretary of Homeland Security has ordered the exclusion and removal of a named artificial intelligence developer's products across the federal civilian executive branch. Notice of the order was published at 91 Federal Register 66346 on Tuesday 20 October 2026, filed the previous day, under Department of Homeland Security docket DHS-2026-0628. The order is operative rather than proposed, and it rests on a recommendation of the Federal Acquisition Security Council together with affiliated evidence.
The order is made under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, codified at 41 U.S.C. sections 1321 to 1328, with implementing regulations at 41 CFR 201-1. Two directives follow. The first is the exclusion of information technology products and services developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd, including affiliated entities as defined in 48 CFR 2.101, from federal civilian agency procurements. The second is the removal of all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and of third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations, from civilian agency information technology. The notice is signed by James H. Percival II, General Counsel, and carries the citation 91 Federal Register 66346 to 66350.
Federal civilian agencies and the suppliers selling into them carry the obligation. Contractors and resellers bidding on civilian agency procurements are reached whether or not they are DeepSeek entities, because the removal directive extends to third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations. A software vendor that has built DeepSeek models into a product sold to a civilian agency therefore has to establish what sits inside its own stack and inside those of its subcontractors. The affiliate definition in 48 CFR 2.101 draws in entities under common ownership or control, which widens the set of suppliers caught beyond the named company.
The signed order appears in the notice as scanned images at 91 Federal Register 66347 to 66350, and the notice directs readers to the full order on regulations.gov under docket DHS-2026-0628. Implementation inquiries are directed to the FASCSA Order Implementation Team in the CISA Cybersecurity Division.
Licentium advises technology suppliers and their investors on supply chain and procurement restrictions attaching to artificial intelligence components. Work we undertake includes tracing model and component provenance through subcontracting chains, assessing whether an entity falls inside the affiliate definition in 48 CFR 2.101, revising supplier representations and flow-down clauses, and preparing submissions to the issuing authority.