Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, push for stricter rules on AI chip sales to China ahead of Xi's US visit.
Top Senate Democrats are calling on President Trump to strengthen export controls on advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment destined for China, ahead of Trump's planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) made their case Wednesday, with Schumer declaring at a press conference: "We are calling on Trump to stand up for the nation's security by once and for all blocking China's access to our AI chips and manufacturing equipment."
Schumer emphasized the stakes. "President Trump must draw a hard line," he said. "Do not weaken America's export controls. Do not give China greater access to the advanced chips and chip-making equipment it needs to close the gap with the United States." Xi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Wednesday, with his meeting with Trump set for Thursday, and AI is expected to feature prominently on the agenda amid widespread concern among researchers about the technology's systemic risks.
Trump has repeatedly stressed the competitive necessity of staying ahead of China on advanced technology, using that argument to deflect calls for new AI safeguards. Yet his track record on chip exports has been inconsistent. Last year, he announced permission for Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China—a decision that drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers warning that the administration was surrendering America's technological edge. Trump officials and Nvidia countered that the H200 chips are several generations behind current technology and that allowing their sale keeps China dependent on U.S. semiconductors while constraining Beijing's domestic capacity.
Senator Slotkin rejected this framing. "If constantly the president is going to talk about this rivalry with China, he can't in the same breath hand them our most sophisticated chips," she said Wednesday. "It's literally a giving away of our national security."
The four Democrats are urging Republican leadership to advance three bills. The Artificial Intelligence Oversight of Verified Exports and Restrictions on Weaponizable Advanced Technology to Covered High-Risk Actors (AI Overwatch Act), co-introduced by Warren and Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) in May, would block advanced chip exports to U.S. adversaries for 18 months and grant Congress oversight authority over export licenses.
The Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (Match Act), introduced in April by Kim alongside Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), would prohibit sales of essential chipmaking tools to countries designated as concerns.
The Chip Security Act, put forward by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) last May, would mandate security mechanisms in chips to prevent their diversion to restricted countries.
"This is not some idea that we have. It is actual legislation that we have ready to go," Kim said Wednesday. "We have legislation that is bipartisan and is something that can make a significant and meaningful impact on this."