Lawmakers and advocates told Reuters that Congress is more likely to pass legislation tightening China’s access to AI chips after reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a relationship with an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation into those allegations on Sunday.
Reuters said three chip-related measures are slated for possible inclusion in the annual defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2027, which began in October, and are now in the Senate National Defense Authorization Act management package. The House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced all three earlier this year.
The measures are the AI Overwatch Act, which would require licenses for certain advanced chip exports to countries of concern and notice to Congress before approvals; the Chip Security Act, which would require location-verification mechanisms so businesses can help track covered chips and combat smuggling; and the MATCH Act, which would push U.S. allies to restrict more chipmaking equipment to China. Reuters described the Overwatch bill as giving Congress power over advanced chip exports.
In a joint statement Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said: “NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s confirmation of a relationship with a suspected spy for China’s intelligence service makes these national security concerns even more urgent and raises important questions NVIDIA must answer about the extent to which these activities were related.” They added: “It is time for Congress to take decisive action to pass key bills like the AI Overwatch Act in the NDAA that will cut off the various pathways through which China accesses advanced chips.”
Huang apologized in a Nov. 8 staff email for an affair and said he would cooperate with the board inquiry. He has not said the woman was a spy, and the intelligence claims remain alleged. The senators’ statement said the AI Overwatch Act was included in the Senate’s fiscal 2027 NDAA, going further than Reuters’s account of possible inclusion in the management package.
Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said the Chip Security Act he introduced with Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., had passed unanimously out of committee in the House and that it was “time to get it across the finish line.” Nvidia declined to comment, Reuters reported. A former congressional staffer who had contact with the company told Reuters that Nvidia is considered the biggest opponent of the Chip Security and AI Overwatch acts. The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Nvidia, has opposed the measures, arguing they could undermine U.S. competitiveness. The White House did not comment.
The same export-control fight includes the H200 chips stored in Hong Kong awaiting mainland import approval.
Sources
- Reuters via Deccan Chronicle: Nvidia spy allegations likely to spur laws to tighten China access to AI chips (November 9-10, 2026)
- Sen. Jim Banks: Sens. Banks, Warren statement on national security concerns surrounding NVIDIA (November 9, 2026)
- Congress.gov: S.4456, AI OVERWATCH Act, 119th Congress
- Congress.gov: H.R.6875, AI OVERWATCH Act, 119th Congress
- Congress.gov: H.R.3447, Chip Security Act, 119th Congress
- Congress.gov: H.R.8170, MATCH Act, 119th Congress
- AI Tech Daily: Nvidia board probes CEO Jensen Huang ties to alleged Chinese intelligence asset (November 9, 2026)
- AI Tech Daily: About 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips pile up in Hong Kong as China withholds import approval (November 6, 2026)