AI Chip Exports to China Face Bipartisan Pushback on Capitol Hill

Lawmakers scrutinized the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan on Capitol Hill, questioning whether its export control strategy is strong enough to keep advanced U.S. AI technology out of China’s hands while maintaining America’s technological lead.

The plan outlines the administration’s approach to accelerating domestic AI development, expanding the infrastructure needed to support advanced models and tightening export controls on sensitive technologies.

During a House hearing last week, lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns on if the strategy can prevent China from acquiring the advanced AI chips needed to train cutting-edge models.

“Chinese military and entities affiliated with the Chinese military should not have access to these chips to train their own AI models,” Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said.

Rep. Castro added that in June, the Department of Defense issued a report indicating that the Department of Commerce had authorized 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia H200 AI chips, which are used to train advanced AI models, from the United States.

Jeffrey Kessler, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, said he could not publicly confirm if this information was accurate.

“The approach that we've taken is to limit the quantity of chips to any particular company,” Kessler clarified.

Kessler said that there are different degrees of sensitivity for technology depending on age, so exporting older AI chips to foreign countries is less of a national security concern than exporting the newest, most advanced chips.

Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) said the former Under Secretary told Congress that China “could not smuggle enough AI chips to overtake the U.S.,” but he isn’t so confident now.

“I'm not sure they have to,” Rep. Self said. “I don't think that more regulation equates to more national security.”

Rep. Self said Congress should approach this issue not only by evaluating regulations, but also policies surrounding export enforcement as well.

“We should look at that together and find areas where we think the policies need to be changed,” Rep. Self said.

Kessler agreed, adding that, under President Biden’s administration, export control laws were not enforced aggressively enough.

“There was significant under enforcement and under-deterrence of violations of the laws,” Kessler said. “Now, we should look at policy too. Congress should look at policy too.”