Delivered Food to Trump! U.S. Congress Investigates Largest Food Delivery Platform for Using Chinese AI

According to recent foreign media reports, DoorDash, the largest online food delivery platform in the United States, is under joint investigation by two congressional committees after it was revealed the company tested Chinese AI models within its internal systems.

The South China Morning Post reported that John Moolenaar, chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter on Friday, July 31, to Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash. They demanded that the company submit a full list of all Chinese AI models in use and records of security testing by August 14, and require relevant executives to appear before Congress for testimony by August 21.

The letter stated that even if Chinese open-source models are "cheaper and more efficient," this does not absolve companies of their risk management responsibilities. National security concerns about reliance on models developed by entities under Chinese jurisdiction "will not be diminished" by such cost advantages.

The incident originated in early July, when DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang revealed on the X platform that the company had integrated Kimi K2.6, a model developed by China's 'Moonshot AI,' into its internal code review process. It is being used for lower-level development tasks, while U.S.-based models such as those from Anthropic are still reserved for more complex assignments.

Fang noted that the new combination is lower in cost and delivers better overall performance than solutions relying solely on U.S. AI models.

American critics have expressed concerns that Chinese AI models may contain backdoors or dormant agents, although there is currently no public evidence indicating such risks are widespread.

A DoorDash spokesperson responded by emphasizing the company's strong support for U.S. AI leadership and its commitment to ensuring AI benefits flow to the broader real economy, not just a few tech giants. The company has neither confirmed nor denied specific procurement details.

Notably, this company, which has repeatedly received White House attention, previously made headlines in April when a delivery driver entered the Oval Office to hand a meal to former President Trump. Now, it finds itself entangled in Washington's geopolitical tech scrutiny over "using Chinese AI to write code."

Analysts point out that as companies like Siemens and Airbnb increasingly adopt Chinese open-source models, U.S. Congress is expanding its oversight from individual firms to the entire civilian AI supply chain. The tug-of-war between business cost logic and national security boundaries is expected to intensify in the coming months.