The US Senate has passed a provision that would give US firms first dibs on advanced chips, just as China tightens customs checks on Nvidia GPUs, leaving the company caught between competing policies across the Pacific.

The Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence (GAIN AI) Act of 2025 didn't get its own standalone vote in the US Senate, instead being passed as part of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which scored Senate approval in a vote on Thursday despite opposition from Nvidia , which argued to The Register that the rule was a "self-defeating policy based on doomer science fiction," like the now-terminated AI Diffusion Rule that came before it.

On the other side of the Pacific, China has reportedly taken action to enforce guidance

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