Moolenaar, Gottheimer Lead Bipartisan Legislation To Close Loophole in Advanced AI Chip Export Controls

Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the Select Committee on China and Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) are co-leading bipartisan legislation to stop the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from accessing advanced AI chips through cloud platforms, by giving providers the tools they need to flag suspicious behavior and report misuse by America's adversaries. 

“In the AI race, China will buy what it can and steal the rest, which is why it is actively trying to get backdoor access to U.S. data centers and train its AI models via cloud computing,” said Moolenaar. “U.S. cloud platforms have a role to play in stopping China’s AI buildup, which fuels its military and surveillance ambitions. This bipartisan commonsense legislation will require them to protect their products and American national security by simply verifying the identity of their users.”

“We can't let our adversaries — especially China — dodge our export controls by simply renting what they can't buy,” said Gottheimer. “This bill gives American companies the legal clarity they need to do the right thing and report when bad actors are trying to use our own cloud infrastructure to threaten our national security."

This bipartisan bill seals off a loophole in U.S. export controls exploited by China.

US export controls already prohibit our adversaries from buying advanced AI chips, but these restrictions stop short of reining in adversaries from using the cloud to access them. Cloud computing permits customers to rent chips through providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. By renting advanced AI chips, as opposed to purchasing them outright, the CCP can access powerful, state-of-the-art semiconductor technology to train its AI models. 

Without this legislation, companies will continue to face extraordinary legal risks that dissuade them from disclosing customer content or records to the US government. 

Read the bill text here.