U.S. Lawmakers Push to Prioritize Domestic Access to AI Chips
However, U.S. lawmakers have drawn up a new measure to bind companies, including giants such as NVIDIA and AMD, to the priority sale of their sophisticated AI chips to domestic customers before exporting them. It comes in the form of a proposal titled the "Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence Act of 2025" (GAIN AI Act). Such amendments are expected to affect the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026.
Favor Domestic Priority
The amendment, filed by Senator Jim Banks, is meant to provide priority access to advanced computing technologies such that no long wait is created for "small businesses, startups, and universities" by what the proposal termed as a bottleneck where demand for AI chips outweighs supply.
Policy under this act states that export of advanced AI chips is to be made conditional whilst a waiting list exists by U.S. entities seeking this technology.
NVIDIA's Rejection of the Proposal
NVIDIA has come up against this proposal because it disputes the central tenant of it. The company argues that the "AI chip" shortage popularized by the statesmen "does not exist." NVIDIA sees this bill as a retread of some AI diffusion regulation that would limit American technology in other nations.
According to the organization, this would invariably affect the global outreach of U.S. technology, thus putting its dominance at stake.
Possible Amplification and Geopolitical Context
At the moment, the GAIN AI Act gives attention solely to AI-specific chips but could later extend to consumer GPUs, which are also critical for making AI compute.
This is part of the overall trend in the U.S. of controlling high-end technology flow to other countries such as China. Other proposals, such as integrating a "kill switch" in AI chips sold abroad, highlight this strategic approach to controlling how and where U.S.-designed technology is used.
