Amazon and Microsoft have publicly backed the GAIN AI Act, a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act that would give U.S. companies priority access to advanced AI chips by requiring domestic fulfillment before export. The legislation targets Nvidia’s high‑performance GPUs, including the H20, H2, and the forthcoming Blackwell series, and would effectively block shipments of these chips to Chinese customers.
The act would mandate that any order for Nvidia’s advanced GPUs be shipped domestically first, creating a “domestic‑first” rule that would prevent the company from exporting the H20, H2, or Blackwell chips to China. This rule would close a loophole that has allowed Nvidia to sell lower‑performance variants to China while still shipping the most powerful models to other markets.
Nvidia estimates that the bill could reduce its revenue from the China AI market by up to $2–3 billion annually. China represents roughly 10% of Nvidia’s global data‑center revenue, and the $50 billion AI market figure cited in the original article is a significant portion of the company’s growth trajectory.
The Trump administration imposed export controls on the H20 in 2022, citing national security concerns. The GAIN AI Act builds on that precedent by expanding the scope to additional high‑performance GPUs and tightening the domestic‑first requirement.
Nvidia has warned that the legislation would create unnecessary market interference, limit global competition, and could harm its ability to serve customers worldwide. The company’s opposition highlights concerns that the act could stifle innovation and reduce the availability of cutting‑edge chips in international markets.
Meta and Alphabet have not publicly taken a stance on the bill, while Anthropic supports the act. The support from Amazon and Microsoft signals a potential rift between hyperscalers and their key chip supplier, raising questions about future supply‑chain dynamics.
The act could reshape the competitive landscape by giving domestic cloud providers priority access to advanced chips, while potentially driving Nvidia to seek alternative markets or adjust its product mix. The legislation’s passage would have significant implications for Nvidia and the broader AI hardware ecosystem.
The GAIN AI Act remains under consideration; its eventual passage would alter the export dynamics for Nvidia and could influence the strategic positioning of U.S. cloud providers and other chipmakers in the global AI market.
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