WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States and China are locked in an “indefinite race” to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence, and the United States needs to adopt legislation that prevents China and other adversaries from acquiring American AI chips, a pair of U.S. congressmen said June 25.
China’s fusing of its civilian and military industries gives it some industrial advantages, but in the AI race, the United States has a “keystone in this archway” because it has the most advanced AI chips, said Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“There is an ability for us to stay ahead in this race — and advance ourselves more ahead — if we can” prevent China from getting access to U.S. AI chips, Mast said during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute.
In December 2025, Mast introduced the Artificial Intelligence Oversight of Verified Exports and Restrictions on Weaponizable Advanced Technology to Covered High-Risk Actors, or AI OVERWATCH, Act, which is meant to ensure “congressional oversight keeps pace with advancing technology, blocks adversary militaries from accessing weapon-enabling AI and accelerates American AI exports to allies and partners around the world,” a House Foreign Affairs Committee release stated.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., in November 2025 introduced the Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence, or GAIN AI, Act to prevent the export of advanced AI chips to arms-embargoed countries “if there is unmet demand from American companies,” a press release stated, giving U.S. firms a “right of first refusal” to acquire these systems.
At the Hudson Institute event, Banks praised both pieces of legislation, calling them “groundbreaking.”
“When you’re in a war, you don’t give your enemy your best weapons and technologies,” he said.
Banks and Mast noted that support for their AI chip export control bills has been broadly bipartisan, but neither one has been signed into law yet.
Congress is an “old dog [that] doesn’t like to learn new tricks,” Mast said. Putting new legislation in place scares members of Congress, and a lack of AI comprehension on Capitol Hill is a major challenge.
“You have to have people that get smart on this, because if they can’t comprehend it, they can’t comprehend the threats,” Mast said.
If U.S. AI chips are sold to Chinese companies, “I jump to the conclusion that it also goes there for military use as well,” he said. “If there’s compute that is going into China for civil use, that is the same compute that goes into China for military use, … and it will be used for nefarious purposes against their adversaries, which is [the United States] chief among them in this great power competition.”
To win the AI race, the Trump administration has the blueprint, Mast said: “don’t sell to Chinese military end-users or other nefarious end-users. That’s a day-to-day operation.” The United States should not let China have the tools to build their own chips and prevent U.S. companies from acquiring the capabilities they need, he added.
Banks agreed, saying that he hopes the United States can “draw a red line” and “never send” U.S. AI chips to China.
AI “has the ability to create superpowers — whether it creates a supervillain or whether it creates a superhero, that depends on the actions that are taken,” Mast said. “America is the superhero in this fight, and China is the supervillain.”