US Defense Bill Amendment Could Force AMD and Nvidia to Prioritize American GPU Buyers
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Key points
- A new amendment to the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act could delay the release of gaming GPUs in countries outside the US.
- It forces companies such as AMD and Nvidia to focus more on the American market.
- Nvidia thinks that the new rules are “doomer science fiction.”
The latest draft of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 has included lines of text that will force companies such as Nvidia and AMD to prioritize selling their high-performance AI processors before being able to sell them abroad. This essentially means that gaming GPUs utilizing AI chips may arrive later for people outside the United States, if the bill is passed into law.
The amendment to the bill states, “artificial intelligence is a transformative technology and United States policy should ensure that United States persons, including small businesses, startups, and universities, are in the best position to innovate and harness the potential of artificial intelligence.”
Additionally, it also acknowledged that the demand for advanced artificial intelligence chips “far exceeds the supply,” which results in United States persons being forced to wait for months to be able to acquire one.
“At the same time, United States chip developers are selling advanced artificial intelligence chips to entities in countries that are subject to a United States arms embargo or countries that have a close relationship with such countries, so that United States persons are unable to acquire such chips,” the amendment states.
Finally, it also stated that “it should be the policy of hte United States and the Department of Commerce to deny licenses for the export of the most powerful artificial intelligence chips, including such chips with a total processing power of 4800 or above; and to restrict the export of advance artificial intelligence chips to foreign entities so long as United States entities are waiting and unable to acquire those same chips.”
This whole amendment is text for the Gain AI Act of 2025, according to Americans for Responsible Innovation. A late-stage Biden administration initiative called the AI Diffusion Rule is also closely related to this.
In a statement by Nvidia sent to Tom’s Hardware, the company criticized the newly proposed rules. “The AI Diffusion Rule was a self-defeating policy, based on doomer science fiction, and should not be revived. Our sales to customers worldwide do not deprive U.S. customers of anything — and in fact expand the market for many U.S. businesses and industries. The pundits feeding fake news to Congress about chip supply are attempting to overturn President Trump’s AI Action Plan and surrender America’s chance to lead in AI and computing worldwide.”
