25 OCT 2026 — MiniMax, a Chinese AI developer listed in Hong Kong, told the stock exchange on 23 October that it has registered with China's Ministry of Commerce to export some of its models, a week after Beijing made such registration compulsory for 23 kinds of AI technology. A state media account had said a day earlier that DeepSeek has done the same. Both moves sit under a draft export catalogue still open for public comment.
Disclosure: RECATOOLS is written with the assistance of Claude, made by Anthropic, whose chief executive is cited in the state media commentary this article reports. Readers should weigh that interest.
What MiniMax told the exchange
In a voluntary announcement filed with the Hong Kong exchange, MiniMax Group's board said it was "pleased to announce that 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". The filing is signed by chairman Yan Junjie.
It does not name the models. It also states that the company knows of no inside information requiring disclosure and advises investors to be cautious when dealing in its shares.
Where the DeepSeek claim comes from
The report on DeepSeek comes from Yuyuantantian, a new-media account belonging to China Media Group, the state broadcaster. Its commentary, republished by Guangming Online on 23 October, says that since the policy was announced, "DeepSeek and MiniMax, two leading companies, have smoothly completed the registration procedures, and completed open-source release and overseas licensed use" (RECATOOLS translation). IT Home, a Chinese technology site, reported that the account posted it on the night of 22 October.
RECATOOLS found no statement from DeepSeek itself. The DeepSeek half of the story therefore rests on one state media account, while the MiniMax half rests on the company's own filing.
Registration is not a licence
Some coverage has called this an approval. Digitimes ran the headline "China clears DeepSeek, MiniMax for overseas AI deployment". The Chinese documents use a narrower word, dengji, meaning registration.
The difference matters. Under the ministries' announcement of 16 October, anyone exporting a listed technology must first record the deal on the commerce ministry's online platform, from that day until the revised catalogue takes effect. The filing covers the exporter, the recipient, the destination, the technology and its intended use, and the expected value. Four situations trigger it, including transferring ownership of a technology abroad and licensing a Chinese technology for use overseas.
A commerce ministry spokesperson, in a question-and-answer statement, said exporters must judge for themselves whether a planned export falls within the registration scope. Nothing in the announcement or the statement says the ministry will publish who has registered. A registration is a record of intent to export. Whether a given model would need a licence is a question for the final catalogue.
Why open-source release needs a filing
The announcement excludes technology that has already entered the public domain through open-source release or academic papers. Releasing a model's weights for the first time is a different act, though. The spokesperson's statement lists open-sourcing of AI technology among the exports that qualify for automatic licensing and other simplified handling, which it says will basically mean "export as soon as reported" (RECATOOLS translation).
That reading fits what MiniMax filed: the registration covers models released recently and models not yet released, for open-source publication and overseas licensing. Once a model is open, it falls outside the catalogue.
The statement also says most AI technology will remain freely exportable once the measures take effect. Offering a restricted model to foreign users through an API, an app, a website, a software-as-a-service product or a lightweight on-device deployment is not treated as exporting the model technology. Deploying a restricted model on overseas infrastructure is, though deployment on a company's own overseas cloud may qualify for automatic licensing.
Beijing's message to the market
The Yuyuantantian piece is aimed at reassurance. It argues that the catalogue's "core is drawing boundaries, rather than simply restricting the export of AI technology" (RECATOOLS translation), and notes that the ministry spent more words explaining what it will not regulate than what it will. It quotes Liu Hongmei, a lawyer at Beijing Dacheng Law Offices who took part in consultations on the draft, as saying restricted technologies can still be exported under licence, without disrupting companies' existing overseas plans.
It also contrasts China's approach with that of the United States, which it says has sorted countries by destination and by bloc. As an example of the bloc approach, it cites an "alliance strategy" it attributes to Anthropic's chief executive. China's rules, the piece says, rest on objective technical thresholds instead: training compute above 10 to the power of 26 operations, more than 2 trillion parameters, or capability in the global top 10.
What is still unknown
Neither company has said which models are covered. The catalogue is a draft, and its thresholds could change before it is issued. Yuyuantantian itself says that what companies now care about more is whether clearer operating guidance will follow.
RECATOOLS reported the draft catalogue and its AI thresholds when it was released. Readers comparing Chinese model providers can find DeepSeek's entry in our AI directory.
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