Nvidia is shifting its Washington lobbying strategy to rely on tech allies and customers to argue against tighter US chip export restrictions, according to Politico. The change comes as revelations about CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with suspected Chinese intelligence asset Alice Huang weaken the company’s direct influence on Capitol Hill after its lobbying helped stall new China chip curbs for nearly two years.
Bipartisan lawmakers are pushing to advance three export control measures attached to the annual defense authorization bill following the disclosures, according to The Information and Reuters. The bills include the MATCH Act to restrict shipments of chipmaking equipment to China, the AI Overwatch Act to expand congressional oversight of advanced AI chip export approvals, and the Chip Security Act to require location tracking on processors. The White House also asked Congress to add a provision to the Overwatch Act ordering the Commerce Department to block Chinese companies from remotely accessing restricted US chips through overseas cloud providers.
