"Bill to Block U.S. AI Chips from Chinese Communist Party Advances in House Foreign Affairs Committee"

Opposition to Trump's Approval of NVIDIA H200 Exports

NVIDIA logo. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

A bill that would allow the U.S. Congress to intervene in the export of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors to China and other countries of concern has passed its relevant standing committee and is now set to be presented to the full House.

On January 21 (local time), the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced on its website that it had completed the markup process for the "AI Overwatch Act."

This bill was introduced last month by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast. The main point of the bill is to strengthen congressional oversight over the export of AI semiconductors that could be used by adversarial nations for military or other purposes harmful to the United States.

The bill requires that exports of AI semiconductors exceeding certain performance thresholds to China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela under the Maduro regime must receive individual approval from the Department of Commerce. In addition, the Department of Commerce must submit relevant information to the appropriate congressional committee at least 30 days before approving any such export. If Congress adopts a joint resolution to prohibit the export after reviewing the information, the Department of Commerce would be barred from granting approval.

Chairman Mast introduced the bill last month after President Donald Trump announced that the export of NVIDIA's H200 AI chip to China would be permitted. Initially, the H200 was effectively banned from export to China by the previous Biden administration due to national security concerns. Subsequently, the Trump administration relaxed export control regulations, allowing NVIDIA to export to China on the condition that 25 percent of the sales proceeds would be collected.

Chairman Mast stated that companies like NVIDIA are attempting to sell advanced AI semiconductors to firms such as Alibaba and Tencent, which operate in service of the Chinese Communist Party. He emphasized, "This bill is very simple. Its purpose is to prevent America's advanced AI semiconductors from falling into the hands of Chinese Communist Party spies."

According to Reuters, the bill passed the Foreign Affairs Committee with overwhelming support. Forty-two committee members voted in favor, while only two opposed.

This development occurred as David Sacks, known as the "AI czar" overseeing AI policy in the Trump administration, was conducting an online campaign to block the bill's passage. Sacks shared on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) a post claiming that Trump opponents and former aides to Barack Obama and Joe Biden had devised the bill to undermine President Trump, commenting, "That's correct."

He also targeted Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, the AI company behind the chatbot Claude, alleging that Amodei had hired former Biden administration staff to push this issue forward.

Reuters reported that Chairman Mast and some lawmakers expressed their displeasure at such online attacks. Republican Representative Michael McCaul criticized, "Even at this very moment, there are interest groups receiving millions of dollars from those who stand to profit from the sale of these semiconductor chips. They are waging a campaign war against this bill on social media. It is shameful."