House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he’ll push to use the annual defense policy bill to tighten restrictions on advanced chip exports to China, an effort gaining momentum amid the revelations about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
"There are provisions currently in the Senate version of the NDAA that will restrict chip access to China that I strongly support, and I think we're going to work hard to make sure that those provisions make it into the final version of the National Defense Authorization,” Jeffries told reporters Monday.
The House Democratic leader’s comments came a day after Nvidia’s board announced an independent investigation into Huang’s affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.
Jeffries’ backing gives a bipartisan Senate push more support in the House as Democrats prepare to take control of the House and Senate following the party’s strong midterm showing.
The Senate legislation, the AI Overwatch Act, would let Congress review licenses to sell advanced AI chips to China and other countries of concern. Other provisions would help track where exported chips end up and tighten restrictions on sales of the equipment used to make them.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) also called Monday for Congress to include the AI Overwatch Act in the defense bill, citing reports that Nvidia had secured approval to export hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips to China, including to companies tied to its military.
“NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s confirmation of a relationship with a suspected spy for China’s intelligence service makes these national security concerns even more urgent and raises important questions NVIDIA must answer about the extent to which these activities were related,” the senators wrote in a statement.
