US Senators Unveil Bill to Block Trump's Relaxation of AI Chip Export Restrictions to China
A bipartisan group of US senators, including prominent Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, has unveiled a bill aimed at blocking President Donald Trump's administration from relaxing rules restricting Beijing's access to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for 2.5 years.
The SAFE CHIPS Act, filed by Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and Democrat Chris Coons, would require the Commerce Department to deny any licence requests for buyers in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea to receive US AI chips more advanced than the ones they currently are allowed to obtain for 30 months. After that, the department would have to brief Congress on any proposed rule changes a month before they take effect.
The legislation represents a rare effort by Trump's own party to stop him from further relaxing tech export restrictions on China. In recent weeks, the administration has imposed and then rolled back curbs on Nvidia's H20 AI chips, citing new Chinese export curbs on rare earth metals used in global tech production. However, China hawks in Washington fear that Beijing could use advanced AI chips to supercharge its military with AI-powered weapons and more powerful intelligence and surveillance capabilities.
"We cannot afford to let the US become a tool for China's aggressive expansion," said Senator Ricketts. "Denying Beijing access to [the best US] AI chips is essential to our national security."
The bill has been co-sponsored by Republican Dave McCormick, Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Andy Kim, and Republican Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China.
As part of negotiations with China to delay its own rare earth controls, Trump's Commerce Department has pushed back a rule restricting US tech exports to units of already-blacklisted Chinese companies. However, some lawmakers remain skeptical about these moves, citing concerns around chip smuggling to China.
The bill comes as the Trump administration mulls greenlighting sales of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, sparking fears that Beijing could use these advanced chips to further its military ambitions.
A bipartisan group of US senators, including prominent Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, has unveiled a bill aimed at blocking President Donald Trump's administration from relaxing rules restricting Beijing's access to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for 2.5 years.
The SAFE CHIPS Act, filed by Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and Democrat Chris Coons, would require the Commerce Department to deny any licence requests for buyers in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea to receive US AI chips more advanced than the ones they currently are allowed to obtain for 30 months. After that, the department would have to brief Congress on any proposed rule changes a month before they take effect.
The legislation represents a rare effort by Trump's own party to stop him from further relaxing tech export restrictions on China. In recent weeks, the administration has imposed and then rolled back curbs on Nvidia's H20 AI chips, citing new Chinese export curbs on rare earth metals used in global tech production. However, China hawks in Washington fear that Beijing could use advanced AI chips to supercharge its military with AI-powered weapons and more powerful intelligence and surveillance capabilities.
"We cannot afford to let the US become a tool for China's aggressive expansion," said Senator Ricketts. "Denying Beijing access to [the best US] AI chips is essential to our national security."
The bill has been co-sponsored by Republican Dave McCormick, Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Andy Kim, and Republican Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China.
As part of negotiations with China to delay its own rare earth controls, Trump's Commerce Department has pushed back a rule restricting US tech exports to units of already-blacklisted Chinese companies. However, some lawmakers remain skeptical about these moves, citing concerns around chip smuggling to China.
The bill comes as the Trump administration mulls greenlighting sales of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, sparking fears that Beijing could use these advanced chips to further its military ambitions.
. Seriously though, it's kinda funny that a bunch of senators are trying to stop Trump from relaxing AI chip export restrictions, when it seems like everyone agrees that China is just gonna find a way to get their hands on these chips anyway 
. Like, hello, Beijing has already found ways to smuggle rare earth metals past our "curbs"... how hard can it be to stop them from getting advanced AI chips? 
. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if this bill actually does anything to slow down China's tech ambitions... or if it's just another empty gesture 
.
this is like soooo crazy! I'm literally shaking over here thinking about what would happen if china gets our AI chips 
they're talking about us becoming a tool for their aggressive expansion 
and it's like whoa no thanks 
I mean I know we need to chill out on all the tech export restrictions but come on, this is like national security 101 
so yeah, I'm totally down with senators Ricketts and Coons on this one 
let's keep our chips safe from those sneaky beijing hackers 
It's all about finding that balance, you know? And what about the actual benefits of sharing tech with China? We can't just shut our doors forever. 
. i'm all 4 this bill, btw! 
. I mean, I get that we need to relax some of these rules, but not at the expense of our security 
.
. This SAFE CHIPS Act might be a good first step, but we need to keep pushing for more oversight and transparency 
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. We can't let them do that. We need to be strong on this issue 
.
2.5 years is a looong time to just chill before we know what's going down 
and don't even get me started on China trying to negotiate its way out of this...it's all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors 
so yeah, I'm all for this bill 
The bill makes sense, though - denying Beijing access to the best US AI chips is a no-brainer for national security. I'm all for bipartisan cooperation on this one. It's about keeping our country safe from potential threats. The more we know about what China's doing with this tech, the better equipped we can be to respond. 
. We gotta protect our national security from those AI chip exports to China, you feel me? 
. At least some of his own party members are standing up for our country 
. The fact that China hawks like Tom Cotton are behind this bill is a major win 
. This whole situation just got way more interesting 
. I mean, have you seen the latest spy movies with all the top-secret AI stuff? It's already overhyped, and now we're worried about what will happen if China gets its hands on some advanced AI chips? Give me a break 
? I'm just not buying it (pun intended).
it's crazy to think about how much of an impact this could have on the whole national security thing... and what's weird is that even some republicans are getting cold feet about this deal 
. Like if they're already restricting us from selling tech to china by saying those chinese companies are blacklisted then why make things more complicated? We should just focus on making sure our own tech industry is strong and we can export it without worrying about losing out to china. And what's the point of 2.5 years? cant we just have a straight forward rule? 
. Like, don't they trust the Chinese government? Can't we just have some chill?