U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday aimed at blocking the Trump administration from granting China broader access to advanced artificial intelligence chips.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, introduced a bill on Thursday to prevent the Trump administration from easing restrictions on China’s access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) for the next 2.5 years.
Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and Democrat Chris Coons filed the SAFE CHIPS Act, which would require the Commerce Department to deny any license requests from buyers in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea seeking AI chips more advanced than what they can currently obtain for 30 months.
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After that period, Commerce would need 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, marking a rare instance of lawmakers in Trump’s own party moving to block the administration from loosening tech export controls on China.
America’s expanding chip crackdown on China dominated the week as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and several investors warned that U.S. policy could reshape the semiconductor industry.
Huang met President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss export restrictions while Congress weighed bills to curb China’s access to advanced AI chips.
Huang said he supports giving U.S. firms priority but criticized the proposed GAIN AI Act, arguing it would hurt the country, and welcomed reports that lawmakers dropped it from the defense bill.
He also urged Congress to replace state-by-state AI rules with a single federal standard, warning that 50 different laws would stall innovation and threaten national security. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the plan lacks the votes.
China’s Market Impact on Nvidia
Beijing has already shut Nvidia out of its AI-chip market, slashing the company’s share “from 95% to 0%” by banning foreign chips from state data centers, tightening import checks, and racing to triple domestic AI-chip output by 2026. With stockpiles and improving homegrown alternatives, Chinese demand has collapsed.
Huang countered that Nvidia can thrive without China, projecting $3 trillion to $4 trillion in global AI-infrastructure spending by 2030.
Concerns Over Potential Sales to China
Meanwhile, the bill comes as the Trump administration considers allowing sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, a move that Washington’s China hawks warn could help Beijing accelerate AI-powered military systems and surveillance capabilities.
The Trump administration has recently imposed and then rolled back restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chips, responding to China’s new export curbs on rare earth metals.
Criticism of Administration’s Actions
The back-and-forth drew criticism from Republican Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House China Select Committee. AMD, Nvidia’s rival, is also pushing to sell to China.
During negotiations with Beijing aimed at delaying China’s rare earth controls, Trump delayed by one year a rule tightening U.S. tech export restrictions on subsidiaries of already-blacklisted Chinese companies.
He has also vowed to overturn a Biden-era rule that restricts AI chip exports globally based partly on concerns about smuggling to China.
In October, Nvidia became the biggest company in terms of market cap, leapfrogging its Big Tech peers like Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
NVDA Price Action: Nvidia shares were up 0.67% at $184.60 during premarket trading on Friday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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