Nvidia privately told US lawmaker AI chip tracking to curb smuggling is feasible
Nvidia privately told congressman Bill Foster that tracking AI chips to curb smuggling to China is technically possible, MIT Technology Review reported on 12 November 2026, despite an industry group calling it "potentially infeasible".
Nvidia representatives privately told US Representative Bill Foster that it would be technically possible to implement the chip-tracking measures required by the Chip Security Act, which he cosponsors, Foster said in an interview published by MIT Technology Review on 12 November 2026, even as the industry's own trade group has publicly called such tracking "potentially infeasible".
What was said
- Foster, an Illinois Democrat and cosponsor of the bill, told MIT Technology Review that during technical discussions Nvidia's reaction was "yeah, of course we can do this," though "they never put anything in writing."
- In March 2026 the Semiconductor Industry Association, of which Nvidia is a member, had opposed the bill, writing that its chip-tracking mandates were "new, untested, and potentially infeasible," according to the report.
- Nvidia confirmed to Reuters that its Fleet Intelligence tool, announced in December 2025, can indicate which country its chips are operating in, but the company would not say whether this could be used to prevent smuggling, MIT Technology Review reported.
- Asked directly in October whether Fleet Intelligence could stop smuggling, Nvidia did not answer and instead sent a statement saying diversion of controlled US products was "insignificant" and "a drop in the bucket" next to China's existing domestic compute, according to the report.
- The Chip Security Act is one of three chip-security bills under consideration for the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act, and Foster said the recent controversy at Nvidia has "fueled support" among colleagues for the measure, according to the report.
Why it matters
Nvidia's private acknowledgement, set against its trade group's public resistance, undercuts the industry's main argument against mandatory chip-location tracking just as Congress weighs writing it into defence legislation, giving lawmakers fresh leverage to push the requirement through. For countries such as Azerbaijan that are courting hyperscale AI investment and negotiating access to advanced GPUs, the episode is a reminder that supply of that hardware remains subject to US export-control politics that can shift with little notice, not purely to commercial agreements with chipmakers or cloud providers.
