U.S. lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at blocking the Trump administration from giving China broad access to advanced artificial intelligence chips.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, introduced legislation Thursday that would block the Trump administration from relaxing restrictions on China’s access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia Inc. (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) over the next two and a half years.
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons introduced the SAFE CHIPS Act, which would require the Commerce Department to deny license applications for 30 months from buyers in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea seeking more advanced AI chips than are currently available.
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After that period, the Commerce Department will have to brief Congress 30 days before making any rule changes, Reuters reported on Friday.
Co-sponsors include Republican Dave McCormick and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Andy Kim, making it a rare example of a lawmaker from Trump’s own party working to block his administration from loosening restrictions on high-tech exports to China.
The growing U.S. semiconductor crackdown on China dominated much of this week, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and several investors warned that U.S. policy could reshape the semiconductor industry.
Huang met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss export controls as Congress considers legislation to limit China’s access to advanced AI chips.
Hwang said he supports prioritizing U.S. companies, but criticized the proposed GAIN AI Act as damaging to the country and welcomed reports that lawmakers had removed it from the national defense bill.
He also urged Congress to replace state-by-state AI regulations with a single federal standard, warning that 50 different laws slow innovation and threaten national security. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the plan didn’t have enough votes.
Impact of Chinese market on Nvidia
The Chinese government has already barred Nvidia from the AI chip market, cutting the company’s market share from 95% to 0% by banning foreign chips from state-run data centers, tightening import inspections, and rushing to triple domestic AI chip production by 2026. China’s demand collapsed due to stockpiling and improved domestic substitutes.
Huang counters that Nvidia can grow without China, predicting global AI infrastructure spending of $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030.
Concerns about potential sales to China
Meanwhile, the bill comes as the Trump administration considers allowing sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chip to China, a move that China hawks in Washington warn could help China accelerate its AI-powered military systems and surveillance capabilities.
The Trump administration recently imposed and later rescinded restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chips in response to new Chinese export restrictions on rare earth metals.
Criticism of the government’s actions
The exchange drew criticism from Republican Rep. John Moolener, who chairs the House China Select Committee. Nvidia’s rival AMD is also pushing sales into China.
Amid negotiations with the Chinese government aimed at slowing China’s rare earth regulations, President Trump delayed for a year the enactment of rules tightening U.S. high-tech export controls on subsidiaries of already blacklisted Chinese companies.
He also vowed to reverse Biden-era rules that restrict exports of AI chips globally, in part due to concerns about smuggling to China.
In October, Nvidia became the largest company by market capitalization, overtaking Big Tech peers such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
NVDA Price Action: Nvidia stock rose 0.67% to $184.60 in pre-market trading on Friday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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