Following Microsoft (MS), Amazon Web Services (AWS) has come out in support of a U.S. congressional bill that would further restrict Nvidia's ability to export to China. With the two hyperscalers that are Nvidia's biggest customers at odds with their supplier, some say the competing interests surrounding AI supremacy have surfaced.
The controversial "GAIN AI Act" would require that U.S. chip demand be met first before allowing exports of high-performance AI chips to China and countries under arms embargoes. If the bill passes, large cloud companies such as MS and AWS would secure priority access to chips for their own data centers, potentially gaining an advantage during a supply shortage.
Jerry Petrella, MS's head of U.S. policy, publicly expressed support for the bill at a conference on the 12th of last month, saying he sees it "very positively." AWS is also said to have conveyed its support through private contacts with Senate staff. AI Start - Up Anthropic has likewise joined the ranks backing the bill. In contrast, another hyperscaler, Google, as well as Meta and President Donald Trump, have not yet stated official positions.
In political circles, key Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are pushing the bill, but actual progress will require agreement from Senate Banking Committee Chairperson Tim Scott and House Republican leadership. The bill is currently being discussed for inclusion as an amendment to the National defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Nvidia is pushing back hard, calling the bill "unnecessary market intervention." It argues that there are already enough chips in the United States and that the real bottleneck for the AI industry is power supply. Ray Wang, principal analyst at research firm Futurum Group, noted, "Until now, conflicts between hyperscalers and Nvidia were mostly about product performance or price, but now geopolitics and regulation are entangled, making it far more complex."
Some White House officials, including David Sacks, who was called the Trump administration's "AI czar," are said to have told Rep. Jim Banks, who introduced the bill, that "the Commerce Department already has authority to control chip exports, so the practical effect of additional legislation may be limited." Even so, with MS, AWS, and Anthropic voicing support in unison, the fight for supply leadership over scarce AI chips appears to be spilling into a legislative battle.