Congress takes on Nvidia, White House in push for chip export limits
Republican lawmakers are pushing to impose limits on U.S. companies’ ability to sell advanced semiconductors to China; It’s an effort that some key figures in the Trump administration have run afoul of.
The effort also pits China hawks against Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has repeatedly told lawmakers and government officials that the more U.S. chips are used in China, the more U.S. companies will become leaders in the field.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.) is at the forefront of ensuring that artificial intelligence and chips are considered national security assets, and he is not afraid to call out Huang directly.
“The joke here is that Jensen wants us to trust the CCP,” Mast told CNBC in an interview, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “Everyone watching this should laugh.”
In the latest salvo, the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced legislation that would give Congress 30 days to review and block the sale of advanced chips to hostile countries; This is similar to the power Congress has over guns and arms sales. It will also revoke all existing export licenses to countries such as China until the government provides a detailed strategy on how the chips will affect the military and intelligence.
All but two members of the committee voted to advance the measure. Currently in the Senate is Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have a companion bill with bipartisan support.
“We are in an AI arms race, and it is important that we know where the AI arms dealers are selling,” Mast said in the interview. He said Congress has no right to interfere with the sale of chips for video games and other commercial purposes, but “when this blends into today’s world, there will be real warfare, real weapons systems, real casualties at the highest level of entire militaries, and yes, we will have a say.”
Mast added that Huang “may not like it, but that’s what’s going to happen.”
Nvidia told CNBC that the Chinese military is unlikely to use American chips because “it makes no sense for the Chinese military to depend on American technology.”
The company added: “The administration’s critics inadvertently support the interests of foreign competitors; America should always want its industry to compete for vetted and approved business enterprises, thereby protecting national security, creating American jobs, and maintaining America’s leadership in artificial intelligence.”
Mast, one of Trump’s supporters, said the committee was aligned with the White House and that the bill codified provisions in the Commerce Department’s final regulation that would allow the sale of advanced chips to China. Both the bill and the regulation prohibit licensing advanced chips to benefit the Chinese military, but the Commerce Department does not give lawmakers the authority to block a sale.
Despite strong support, the bill faces an uphill climb to be heard. Ahead of the committee vote, White House AI czar David Sacks retweeted a post from X account Wall Street Mav criticizing the bill, saying it “hinders Trump’s ability to position the United States favorably strategically vis-à-vis China.”
“True,” Sacks said, quoting the tweet.
Mast pushed back, saying the talking points in the accounts Sacks highlighted matched talking points he had heard from Nvidia.
“What he was promoting were paid influencers, literally about a dozen or so of whom were telling actual lies,” Mast said.
Mast said he worked with others in the administration on the bill before it was voted on in committee.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The committee isn’t done inspecting the chips. Mast also plans to vote on a bill that would require exported advanced chips to include a mechanism to verify their location, which would require exporters to flag the government if a chip ends up in an unauthorized location. The bill, known as the Chip Security Act, has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
