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Blackburn's SAFE Chips Act would strip the White House of control over AI chip exports to China

The bill would shift export licensing from the White House to Congress, directly challenging Trump's trade strategy·February 1, 2026

Two competing forces are reshaping how America controls which AI chips reach China. Senator Marsha Blackburn introduced the TRUMP AMERICA AI Act in December 2025, a sweeping federal bill that would create a single national AI rulebook while preempting state laws — and it includes provisions on AI chip exports as part of a broader effort to secure U.S. AI dominance. Meanwhile, Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced the bipartisan SAFE Chips Act in December 2025, which would lock current restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China for 30 months, blocking the Trump administration from selling Nvidia's most powerful chips to Beijing without congressional approval. The Trump administration itself changed course in January 2026, with the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security revising export rules to allow case-by-case review of advanced AI chip sales to China — a move that critics say gives Nvidia and AMD back-channel access to the Chinese market for chips like the H200. Congress passed the Remote Access Security Act 369-22 in January 2026, extending export controls to cloud computing access from abroad. The battle between the executive branch's flexibility and Congress's desire to lock in restrictions has turned semiconductor chips into a frontline of U.S.-China competition.

Key facts

Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced the SAFE Chips Act in December 2025 with a bipartisan coalition that includes Tom Cotton, Jeanne Shaheen, Dave McCormick, and Andy Kim. The bill would lock current export restrictions on advanced AI chips destined for China and other adversaries for 30 months, preventing the Trump administration from approving sales of chips more powerful than those currently permitted — the Nvidia H20 and AMD MI308.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the TRUMP AMERICA AI Act in December 2025, the full name being The Republic Unifying Meritocratic Performance Advancing Machine Intelligence by Eliminating Regulatory Interstate Chaos Across American Industry Act. The bill seeks to create a single federal framework for AI regulation that preempts state laws, including provisions touching chip export policy and national AI dominance goals. NVIDIA, Meta, and Microsoft have signaled support for federal preemption, arguing that 50 different state rules create compliance nightmares for companies.

The Trump administration changed course on AI chip exports in January 2026. The Bureau of Industry and Security, which sits inside the Commerce Department and enforces export controls, published a final rule on January 15, 2026 changing its review policy for advanced AI chips destined for China and Macau. License applications for chips like the Nvidia H200 and AMD MI325X will now be evaluated case by case rather than presumed denied — a significant loosening of the approach the Biden administration had put in place.

Congress pushed back on the executive branch's flexibility immediately. The House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced the AI OVERWATCH Act on January 21, 2026, sponsored by Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL), which would treat advanced semiconductor exports like weapons sales and prohibit Nvidia's Blackwell-generation chips from reaching foreign adversaries for two years. Separately, the House passed the Remote Access Security Act 369-22 on January 12, 2026, extending export controls to cover foreign nationals accessing controlled chips remotely via cloud services.

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed by President Biden in August 2022, appropriated $52.7 billion for domestic semiconductor manufacturing — including $39 billion in manufacturing subsidies for companies like TSMC, Intel, and Samsung to build U.S. chip factories. A key condition: companies that receive CHIPS Act funding are prohibited from expanding advanced chip manufacturing in China for 10 years. Senator Blackburn co-sponsored the companion Chip EQUIP Act with Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) to prevent CHIPS Act recipients from buying manufacturing tools made by Chinese-controlled entities.

China is the central reason for this legislative battle

China's military and surveillance apparatus depends on advanced AI chips for training large language models, optimizing weapons guidance systems, and powering smart city surveillance networks

American export controls have forced Chinese AI developers to work with less powerful chips, creating a meaningful technology gap Allowing more advanced chips to flow to China via case-by-case licensing — as the January 2026 BIS rule permits — could close that gap faster than U.S. policymakers intended.

The economic stakes for chip companies are enormous

Nvidia generated roughly $17 billion from China in its fiscal year 2024, about 16% of its total revenue

Export controls have already forced Nvidia to create special downgraded chips for the Chinese market (H20, H800) If the SAFE Chips Act passes and locks those restrictions in law, Nvidia faces permanent revenue caps from its largest customer If restrictions ease further under executive flexibility, Chinese companies could access chips that accelerate military AI programs — a tradeoff that Congress's national security hawks find unacceptable.

The fight over who controls chip export policy — Congress or the executive branch — reflects a deeper constitutional tension

Congress wrote the Export Administration Act and Export Control Reform Act, giving the executive branch authority to regulate what technology flows abroad for national security reasons

But Congress never explicitly delegated authority to permanently liberalize chip exports to China Senators on both sides argue the January 2026 BIS rule exceeded executive authority by loosening restrictions without congressional input, though legal scholars are divided on whether the SAFE Chips Act's mandatory denial approach itself would survive legal challenge.