Nvidia boss Jensen Huang steers Trump, Congress against AI chip limits and state-level AI rules

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Donald Trump and criticized proposed restrictions on chip exports under the GAIN AI Act.
Lawmakers removed a chip export proposal from the annual defense bill.
Huang also warned that state-level artificial intelligence laws would harm U.S. innovation and national security.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn't known for getting into political frays, but he made an exception this week by spending some time in Washington, D.C. He met with President Trump to oppose the GAIN AI Act and his proposed rule requiring U.S. chip makers like Nvidia and AMD give priority to domestic buyers before selling advanced artificial intelligence chips abroad.

The legislation was pitched as a way to keep America ahead of China in the AI race, but shortly after his meeting with the president, lawmakers removed it from the National Defense Authorization Act. Huang was quick to declare his support for export controls, but not this one.

said at the press conference after the meeting. He called it “wise” for lawmakers to reject the plan.

For Nvidia, which is the undisputed global heavyweight in artificial intelligence hardware, such a breakthrough would be like asking Boeing to fly with half an engine. Their chips already dominate cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence development around the world. Losing the freedom to sell to trusted international customers without government-mandated queues will undermine their advantage in a business built on speed and scale.

While Huang gave a patriotic spin to his corporate lobbying, he pointed to more than just Nvidia's profits as a reason to oppose the GAIN AI Act. The law would force companies like Nvidia to delay orders for foreign chips while confirming that demand in the United States is not strong. But giving U.S. institutions and companies a fair chance to produce high-performance artificial intelligence chips, he said, would also slow down innovation for competitors, complicate global logistics and harm America's ability to remain competitive in artificial intelligence.

For most people, the impact of these legislative debates is indirect but very real. If Huange is right, regulation will slow the pace of AI improvement for everyone. Although, if he's wrong, it will be harder for American businesses to compete if foreign groups can get their hands on all the big chips.

Patchwork AI Rules

This wasn't Huang's only legislative opponent this week. He met with lawmakers to criticize a separate idea gaining traction in US states: local regulation of AI. “Regulating AI in every state will bring this industry to a grinding halt,” Huang warned. “This will pose a threat to national security.”

chatbotFeatures vary depending on what zip code your user lives in. There are bills circulating in at least 30 states that propose varying standards for disclosure, bias, transparency and security in artificial intelligence systems.

Trump reportedly echoed Huang's concerns during their meeting and publicly supported the idea of a national standard that would take precedence over state laws. There is no such rule in the NDAA yet, but if it becomes a real problem, it could end up in next year's bill.

For tech critics, this is familiar territory: Big tech companies are pushing for a single federal rule to avoid 50 regulatory headaches. And it's not that regulatory disagreements can't irritate the average AI user. It would be like 50 different versions of the GDPR, but without the ability to fully comply.

The delay of the GAIN AI Act, in your view, is a signal that lawmakers are not willing to clip the wings of America's most important chip company or that they are being held captive by powerful and wealthy corporate interests. Or both. And while the future of AI regulation at all levels is still in flux, Huang outlined what the tech industry's most influential players see as an ideal solution.

If you use AI tools or will use them in the near future, this matters. This is not only about export forms and legal frameworks. It's about who will move fast and who will slow down, and how much we trust the handful of companies that will shape the technology infrastructure of the next decade.

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