Nvidia reportedly is very upset with the new AI Act — AI GAIN Act — introduced recently. Nvidia has voiced strong concerns that the proposed AI GAIN Act would stifle global competition and negatively impact the American economy. The company said that the bill could have effects similar to the AI Diffusion Rule, which limited the computing power available to different countries.Short for the Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence Act, the new legislation is part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It would require U.S. chipmakers to prioritize domestic orders for advanced processors before fulfilling international requests.According to a report in Reuters, a spokesperson for Nvidia said that the company never gives priority to foreign customers over American ones. “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 spokesperson said. The company added that the US has always been and will continue to be its largest market.Both the AI GAIN Act and the AI Diffusion Rule are efforts by the U.S. government to prioritize domestic needs and ensure American firms have access to high-end chips. This comes amid concerns that China could use advanced AI capabilities to enhance its military.
What AI GAIN Act means for chip companies
If passed, the legislation would impose new trade restrictions, requiring exporters to obtain licenses for shipments of chips that exceed a specific performance threshold. The bill states that it should be U.S. policy to “deny licenses for the export of the most powerful AI chips, including such chips with total processing power of 4,800 or above.” It also aims to restrict the export of advanced chips to foreign entities when U.S. companies are waiting for the same chips.These rules are similar to some of the conditions under former President Joe Biden’s AI Diffusion Rule, which assigned specific levels of computing power to U.S. allies and other nations. The bill outlines specific technical thresholds to classify a chip as ‘advanced,’ taking a page from the Biden administration’s 2023 book when it comes to benchmarks, but making them stronger when it comes to memory bandwidth.Last month, President Donald Trump reportedly made a deal with Nvidia, allowing the company to resume exports of previously banned AI chips to China in exchange for a portion of its sales.
