DeepSeek and MiniMax, two of China's best-known AI developers, have obtained licensing rights to release open-source models and operate overseas, according to a state-linked WeChat account.
The account, Yuyuan Tantian, is affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV. In a post, it said: "Since the policy was announced, two leading companies, DeepSeek and MiniMax, have successfully completed the registration process and obtained open-source and overseas licensing rights." The post concerns China's AI export controls. The quoted passage names only those two companies, and it comes from the account, not from either developer.
Most export-control news runs the other direction, with Washington limiting what chips and equipment can be sold to China. This passage describes Beijing running a registration process for AI work that leaves the country. Open-source models are ones a developer publishes for anyone to download, use and modify, and public releases of that kind helped build DeepSeek's profile abroad.
If registration is now the route to releasing models openly, those launches pass through a government checkpoint they may not have faced before. That is an inference from the wording, not something the quote spells out. The pairing of "open-source" and "overseas" rights suggests the two are treated as related permissions.
The open questions are what the licenses allow in practice and which developers register next. Two firms completing the process is a start, and a longer list would show how widely it applies.