In what is seen as a brave move bearing on national security, a congressman is poised to introduce an unprecedented bill that would track the whereabouts of artificial intelligence (AI) chips-like the ones made by Nvidia-after their sale. This bill, having been acquiesced to by both the Democrats and the Republicans, targets the illegal smuggling of Nvidia chips to China in defiance of U.S. export legislation.

Nvidia Chips and Their Role in AI Innovation

Potent Chips from Nvidia pave the way for AI system development such as chatty bots, image generators, or any other piece of advanced technology, even those used in designing biological weapons. Both former presidents, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, implemented stricter export controls on chips with the goal of restricting China’s access. However, even with the implemented control measures, reports say that some of these chips still end up in China.

Efforts to Enforce Stricter Control and Tracking

Nvidia has publicly stated that it “cannot track its products after they are sold.” However, U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois, argues that the technology to track chips after they are sold already exists and is even built into many of Nvidia’s chips. Foster, who has a background in particle physics and chip design, is set to introduce the bill in the coming weeks.

The bill would require U.S. regulators to implement two main rules:

  1. Track chips to ensure they are only in authorized locations.
  2. Prevent the chips from functioning if they do not have the correct export license.

Foster emphasized that this issue is not just a potential problem for the future, but one that is happening now. This is not an imaginary future problem, Foster said.

“It is a problem now, and at some point we’re going to discover that the Chinese Communist Party, or their military, is busy designing weapons using large arrays of chips, or even just working on (artificial general intelligence), which is as immediate as nuclear technology.”

The urgency of this issue increased after the rise of China’s DeepSeek AI system, which was built using Nvidia chips that were prohibited from being sold to China. In one instance, three Chinese nationals were charged with fraud in Singapore for attempting to illegally import Nvidia chips.

Though not yet in widespread use, the technology to track the location of these chips already exists. For instance, companies like Google track the location of their AI chips within their global data centers for security purposes. Foster’s bill would give the U.S. Department of Commerce six months to establish the necessary regulations for chip location tracking.

Strong Bipartisan Support for the Bill

Foster’s proposed legislation has received backing from both political parties. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois and a key member of the House Select Committee on China, praised the proposal.On-chip location verification is one creative solution we should explore to stop this smuggling.

Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the Select Committee, also supports the initiative stating,

“The Select Committee has strong bipartisan support for requiring companies like Nvidia to build location-tracking into their high-powered AI chips and the technology to do it already exists.”

As the U.S. government steps up efforts to control the flow of Nvidia chips to China, this new legislation could play a key role in ensuring these vital AI resources are used in a way that prioritizes national security and technological integrity.