Chinese embassy refutes US claim Moonshot steals from Anthropic model

China's Moonshot AI stole from Anthropic's most sophisticated AI large language model,

Fable, to help create its latest K3 release and has acquired

advanced Nvidia AI chips, top Trump administration tech official Michael Kratsios said on Wednesday.

"We have information that Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic's Fable for the development of its K3 model," he said in a post on X. "Large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday in a separate post on X that he was considering adding Moonshot AI to a trade blacklist and imposing sanctions.

The Trump administration's accusations will likely ramp up tensions over technology issues between Beijing and Washington as firms from both countries introduce increasingly powerful AI models that have broad economic implications and potential military uses.

Moonshot did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokesperson Liu Chang of the Chinese embassy in Washington called Kratsios' comments "entirely unfounded," adding that China respects intellectual property protections.

"Relevant individuals in the United States should respect the facts, discard prejudice and stop smearing and discrediting

China's achievements in the development of its artificial intelligence industry," he said.

Anthropic public policy executive Sarah Heck said in a post on X that Chinese theft of U.S. models "creates serious national security risks for the United States."

Kratsios also said Moonshot AI had acquired servers containing powerful Nvidia AI chips called GB300s and had used them in Thailand, "likely to train its AI models." A senior Trump administration official said in February that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's latest AI model was trained on Nvidia's most advanced AI chip, in what could represent a violation of U.S. export controls.