House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino (R-NY) sent a letter to DoorDash co-Founder and CEO Tony Xu amidst a joint investigation into the national security, cybersecurity, and economic security implications of American companies integrating artificial intelligence (AI) models into their business.
In the letter to DoorDash, the Chairmen write:
“[T]he Committees recognize that U.S. companies, from large technology firms to startups, may evaluate and deploy PRC-developed open-weight models because they can provide competitive capabilities, lower costs, greater customization, and alternatives to reliance on a small number of proprietary model providers. Those practical considerations do not eliminate the need for risk-based safeguards or diminish the national security concerns associated with growing dependence on models developed by entities subject to PRC jurisdiction. An effective federal approach should therefore reduce U.S. companies’ reliance on PRC-developed models by strengthening the availability, security, and competitiveness of American open-weight alternatives, while applying appropriately tailored safeguards in sensitive and high-risk applications. This investigation is intended to establish the factual record necessary to inform that approach.”
The committees are exploring the national security, cybersecurity, and economic security implications of U.S. companies integrating Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) models into consumer platforms.
Background
Open-weight AI differs from other AI models because the encoded "weights" (numbers dictating the AI's behavior and response capabilities to prompts) are public, downloadable, and customizable. These models lack guardrails to mitigate the consequences of bad actors using the AI, such as injecting bad code or launching attacks against AI systems. America must have a sufficient open-weight AI strategy to ensure American companies and cyber defenders are not forced to choose between expensive or restricted U.S. models and Chinese open-weight alternatives.
The committees began this investigation with letters to
Anysphereand
Airbnbin April 2026, and have since engaged in discussions with both companies regarding the technical, commercial, and security considerations surrounding their evaluation and use of Chinese open-weight models. As a next step in the investigation, the Chairmen sent this letter to DoorDash requesting similar information.
The Chinese Communist Party's robust efforts to close the AI innovation gap with America through model distillation, intellectual property theft, and other illicit means attests to the growing significance of the national security threat posed by Chinese AI models.