America's endeavor to protect its semiconductor technology from China has increasingly dramatic twists in recent years – from export bans to global restrictions – but the latest proposal from the congress estate on unprecedented territory.
The legislator now urges a mandatory persecution in the GPS style, which is embedded in every AI chip exported from the USA, and essentially transform advanced semiconductors into devices that report their location back in Washington.
On May 15, 2025, a cross -party group of eight house representatives introduced the chip security act, which means that companies like Nvidia have to embed the location review mechanisms in their processors before exporting.
This represents the most invasive approach in the technological competition of America with China, which goes far beyond the restriction, where chips can be actively monitored where they land.
The mechanics of the AI chip monitoring
As part of the proposed Chip Security Act, the AI chip monitoring for all “covered integrated circuit products” would be mandatory -including those under the classification numbers of export control 3A090, 3A001.Z, 4A090 and 4A003. Before export, re-export or domestic transfer in foreign nations, companies would have to embed the location check mechanisms in their AI chips before export, re-export or domestic transfer.
The representative Bill Huizenga, the Republican from Michigan, who introduced the house law, said: “We have to use protective measures to ensure that export controls are not avoided so that these advanced AI chips can fall into the hands of shameful actors.”
His co-lead, representative of Bill Foster-Einen Democrat and former physicist in Illinois, who designed chips during his scientific career, “I know that we have the technical tools to prevent powerful AI technology from getting into the wrong hands.”
The legislation goes far beyond simple location tracking. Companies would be exposed to continuous monitoring obligations that have to report credible information about the distraction of chips, including changes in the location, non -authorized users or manipulation attempts.
This creates a continuous surveillance system that extends to the point of sale for an indefinite period and fundamentally changes the relationship between manufacturers and its products.
Cross-party support for technological control
The most striking about this KI chip monitoring initiative is the cross -party nature. The legislation supports the entire party lines that are supported together by the China Chairman's House selection committee, John Moolaar and the ranking member Raja Krishamoorthi. Other cospons are representatives Ted Lieu, Rick Crawford, Josh Gotheimer and Lahood.
Moolenaar said: “The China Communist Party has exploited weaknesses in our enforcement system for export control -whereby Shell is using companies and smuggling networks to distract sensitive US technology.”
The cross -party consensus on monitoring AI chips reflects how deeply the China challenge is penetrated into American thinking and has crossed traditional partisan departments.
The Senate has already introduced a similar legislation by Senator Tom Cotton, which indicates that the monitoring of the semiconductor has a broad support of the congress. The coordination between chambers shows that a form of the AI chip monitoring can be right to be right, regardless of which party controls the congress.
Technical challenges and implementation questions
The technical requirements for implementing AI chip monitoring raise considerable questions about feasibility, security and performance. The draft law stipulates that chips implement “Implementing location check using techniques” within 180 days after additions, but contains only a few details on how such mechanisms would work without impairing the performance of the chips or introducing new weaknesses.
For industry leaders such as NVIDIA, the implementation of the mandatory monitoring technology could fundamentally change product design and manufacturing processes. Each chip would need embedded functions to check its location and possibly require additional components, increased electricity consumption and processing effort that could affect performance – especially what customers cannot afford in AI applications.
The draft law also grants the Minister of Commerce the broad enforcement authority in order to “check how the secretary is appropriate, the property and place of exported chips. This creates a real-time monitoring system in which the US government may pursue every advanced semiconductor worldwide and raises questions about data sovereignty and privacy.
Commercial surveillance fulfills national security
The proposal for monitoring AI Chip is an unprecedented fusion of national security conditions with commercial technology products. In contrast to conventional export controls, which only restrict the goals, the approach creates ongoing surveillance obligations that blur the boundaries between private trade and state surveillance.
The background of representative Foster as a physicist gives the initiative of technical credibility, but also shows how scientific specialist knowledge can be used in geopolitical competition. The legislation reflects the conviction that technical solutions can solve political problems – that the embedding of surveillance skills in semiconductors can prevent their abuse.
However, the proposed law raises fundamental questions about the nature of the technological export in a globalized world. Should every advanced semiconductor become a potential surveillance device?
How will the monitoring of the mandatory Ki -chip monitoring influence the innovations in countries that rely on the US technology? What precedent does this determine for other nations who want to monitor their technological exports?
Acceleration of technological decoupling
The obligatory AI chip monitoring request could accidentally accelerate the development of alternative semiconductor ecosystems. If US chips are equipped with built-in persecution mechanisms, the countries can increase the efforts to develop domestic alternatives or sources of suppliers without such requirements.
China, which is already investing strongly in the self-sufficiency of the semiconductors after years of US restrictions, can see this monitoring requirements as a further justification for technological decoupling. The irony is striking: efforts to pursue the Chinese use of US chips can ultimately reduce their attractiveness and market share in global markets.
In the meantime, Allied nations can ask whether you want to depend on your critical infrastructure on chips that can be monitored by the US government. The broad language of the legislation indicates that the KI chip monitoring would apply to all countries, not only for opponents, but possibly relationships with partners who appreciate the technological sovereignty.
The future of Semiconductor Governance
Since the Trump administration continues to formulate its replacement for Bidens Ki diffusion rule, the congress does not seem to be waiting. The Chip Security Act represents a more aggressive approach as a conventional export control, which changes from the restriction to active surveillance in a way that could redesign the global semiconductor industry.
This evolution reflects deeper changes in the way the nations look at technology exports in an age of the great power competition. The semiconductor industry, which once rules primarily of market forces and technical standards, is increasingly working on geopolitical imperatives that prioritize control over trade.
Whether the AI chip monitoring will become the law depends on congress measures and reaction to the industry. However, cross -party support suggests that any form of semiconductor monitoring can be inevitable and that a new chapter in the relationship between technology, trade and national security is marked.
Conclusion: the end of anonymous semiconductors from America?
The question that faces the industry is no longer whether the United States controls exports of technology, but how extensively it will monitor it after leaving the American coast. In this aspiring paradigm, each chip becomes a potential intelligence power value, and each exporting a data point in a global surveillance network.
The semiconductor industry is now facing a critical choice: Adjusting a future in which products carry your own tracking systems or the risk of being completely excluded from the US market is completely excluded.
While the congress urges an obligatory KI chip monitoring, we can see the end of anonymous semiconductor and the beginning of an era in which every processor knows exactly where it belongs -and reports accordingly.
See also: US China Tech War escalates with new AI chips export controls
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