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Nvidia is trying to kill the momentum behind a proposed US law that would force it to sell the most advanced GPUs to Americans first before they could be exported abroad.
“In trying to solve a problem that does not exist, the proposed bill would restrict competition worldwide in any industry that uses mainstream computing chips,” the company tweeted today.
Nvidia took direct aim at the “GAIN AI Act” after the US Senate added the legislation to the latest draft of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026.
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Whether the proposal will survive future drafts remains unclear. But the bill’s sponsor, US Sen. Jim Banks (R-Indiana), says it “puts American companies and researchers before our adversaries like China. This is America First in action.”
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Banks also spoke with former Trump administration strategist and political pundit Steve Bannon, urging other senators to support and pass the legislation. “There’s nothing more America first than making sure we dominate the race to AI, and the technologies of the future,” he added.
This comes as Democrats have also been critical of Nvidia’s advanced AI chip sales to China, citing national security risks.
If it does pass, the GAIN AI Act could drastically change how Nvidia and AMD conduct business. The two companies would only be able to export their leading GPUs if there’s “no current backlog of requests from United States persons for the circuit or product or a comparable circuit or product,” the text says.
Although current US policy already prohibits the export of the most powerful GPUs, including the RTX 5090, to China, the GAIN AI Act could restrict even more products since it appears to target a class of GPUs below the top-tier chips.
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In response, Nvidia initially blasted the proposal, comparing it to the “doomer science fiction” AI chip regulations from the Biden administration. On Friday, the company went out of its way to push back again, saying, “The US has always been and will continue to be our largest market. We never deprive American customers in order to serve the rest of the world.”
Nvidia has been trying to sell a downgraded H20 GPU for AI training to the Chinese market. Although Nvidia has received clearance from Trump to export the product to China, the company told investors last week it’s still working through “geopolitical issues” between the US and Chinese governments.
“If geopolitical issues subside, we should ship $2 billion to $5 billion in H20 revenue for Q3,” Nvidia’s CFO said. Outside the GAIN AI Act, the company has also been speaking out against the US requiring location tracking inside GPUs meant for China.
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About Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
