Nvidia and AMD appealed to the White House to defuse proposed China chip export restrictions in a pending defense bill, citing competitive and supply-chain concerns.
Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are pressing the Trump administration to keep new China-related chip export restrictions out of the annual defense policy bill, arguing that overly broad controls would backfire by accelerating Beijing's push for domestic alternatives.
The two semiconductor giants have intensified outreach to the White House and senior Commerce Department officials in recent weeks, seeking to strip provisions from the National Defense Authorization Act that would tighten oversight of advanced chip sales to China. They are specifically targeting language based on the AI OVERWATCH Act, introduced by Representative Brian Mast of Florida and Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, which would codify restrictions on exports of the most advanced AI chips to countries of concern and give Congress greater oversight of the Commerce Department's export licensing process. The Senate version was folded into the fiscal 2027 NDAA in July.
The companies are not seeking a wholesale rollback of China-related controls. Instead, they are pushing for changes to specific provisions, arguing that some proposed requirements would be difficult to implement. On the Chip Security Act, which would require greater tracking of where advanced chips ultimately end up, Nvidia and AMD are seeking clarity that rules would not force hardware changes and requesting more time to comply.
Company executives have told administration officials that sweeping restrictions could limit the U.S. industry's access to the Chinese market while pushing China to accelerate development of its own AI silicon.
The lobbying campaign unfolds as Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang was expected to attend a White House meeting on artificial intelligence with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Last week, Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su sat at the head table with Trump during the state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump has previously taken a more permissive approach to certain advanced chip sales to China, allowing Nvidia and AMD to sell some products there in exchange for a share of resulting revenue. That stance has drawn fire from lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has called for halting Nvidia's sales of advanced chips to China. "Donald Trump seems to want to do business with Nvidia, regardless of what it does to our country," Warren said. The Massachusetts Democrat has also argued that chipmaker lobbying could sway lawmakers' decisions on export restrictions.
Beijing has signaled it may approve purchases of Nvidia's high-end RTX PRO 5500 chips by companies including ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holdings, with industry executives expecting that product to remain outside U.S. export controls. In August, limited batches of Nvidia's H200 AI chips were reportedly cleared for shipment into mainland China, though these older-generation processors trail the company's latest Blackwell lineup.
Nvidia's China-related revenue has already narrowed sharply, falling to $4.55 billion in the first quarter from $9.66 billion a year earlier.
On Monday, Nvidia announced a $150 billion increase to its share repurchase authorization, lifting the remaining amount under the program to $235 billion, with execution expected through fiscal 2028. The company also launched its Open Agent Safety Platform, combining its OpenShell open-source software with a Sentry reference design to provide controls around AI agents from testing through deployment. More than 100 organizations are participating, including Microsoft, Anthropic, Salesforce, Palantir Technologies, CrowdStrike and JPMorgan Chase.