U.S. Senate passes bill that forces AI chipmakers to prioritize sales to American companies — House now set to amend or pass legislation

the US Capitol building
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The United States Senate has just passed the 'GAIN AI' legislation as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would require AI chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD to prioritize chip orders for American companies over export orders, particularly to China and its allies. As reported by Bloomberg, the bipartisan bill sailed easily through the Senate and is now under consideration by the House.

“Today, the Senate acted to make sure American customers — including small businesses and startups —aren’t forced to wait in line behind China’s tech giants when purchasing the latest AI chips,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement. Senator Jim Bank (R-IN), who is the lead co-sponsor of the bill, also noted that this bill will bolster the U.S. competitiveness in AI and other cutting-edge industries while reducing exports to U.S. rivals, particularly China.

Nvidia has always criticized this bill, saying that its global sales “do not deprive U.S. customers of anything” and that the logic behind it was “based on doomer science fiction.” The company also said that it was “trying to solve a problem that does not exist” and that it would “restrict competition worldwide in any industry that uses mainstream computing chips.” Nvidia has said that its H20 shipments do not affect the supply of H100, H200, and Blackwell chips, which makes sense as these all use different parts, and that the supply of one will not affect the supply of the other.

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Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • joeer77
    So the US government wants to tell private companies what their customer priorities are? Sounds like communism.

    I'm not surprised Pocahontas supports this.
    Reply
  • SomeoneElse23
    I'm not so sure about 'communism'. My understanding of communism is the state IS the production. That is, there's no separation between the state and what would normally be a company/corporation doing production.

    Also, we're talking about legislation, which means it could die in the house. And if it gets through the house with whatever reconciliation there is between the two bills, the affected corporations are free to protest through the judicial system where it could be ruled as unconstitutional.

    I think this is very different than the state saying "this is how it is" and, then it is.
    Reply
  • DavidM012
    That ain't a lot of difference to simply saying to someone else, patent this technology that we developed during wartime and start a decades long monopalolly with it, and Bill can do the software.

    DARPA invented Tcp/Ip. IBM started the personal computer for office bureaucracy, but only after science transferred bit processing from valves and ticker tapes to silicon based transistors.

    In practice, the people doing the math are simply wearing a different id badge, if not suit or uniform. It just sounds like they dished out the tech to a handful of entrepreneurs, and consumers simply have to unjumble and assemble the jigsaw.

    Rather than having a state monopoly do everything in house. The concept of competition? Buy 1 of 4 gpus with different packaging from 1 of 4 oem's that is basically the same thing with a different logo. Isn't much discernable choice. Besides, buying cheap and problematic compatibility wise, or expensive, and less hass, sometimes.
    Reply