3 bipartisan plans could slap new controls on semiconductor exports. Elizabeth Warren wants to pass one this year. Ben Werschkul · Washington Correspondent Tue, November 10, 2026 at 7:10 AM EST 5 min read NVDA -0.33% Trade NVIDIA on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Three bipartisan measures circulating on Capitol Hill could reshape US export controls on semiconductors. On Monday, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced an effort to implement one in the coming weeks.
"It is time for Congress to take decisive action to pass key bills like the AI Overwatch Act in the NDAA," Warren and Republican Jim Banks of Indiana said Monday as a rapidly growing scandal around Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang consumed Wall Street.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a massive package that sets funding levels for the Department of Defense and is considered must-pass legislation in the coming weeks as lawmakers return to Washington after the elections.
The AI OVERWATCH Act could be attached to the NDAA and would require the Commerce Department to issue new, more restrictive licensing requirements for exporting certain advanced circuits.
The legislation has a bipartisan cast of 56 co-sponsors across the Senate and House versions of the bill.
A prominent Senate Democratic co-sponsor, in addition to Warren, is Charles Schumer of New York, who is expected to be Senate majority leader next year. In the House, likely incoming speaker Hakeem Jeffries also pushed for new chip restrictions in the must-pass bill on Monday, telling reporters there are provisions included in the Senate package that he supports.
"We're going to work hard to make sure that those provisions make it into the final version," Jeffries said.
There is, of course, plenty of legislative maneuvering to come — and President Trump has expressed his support for Huang. During a press conference late Monday afternoon, Trump called Huang an "amazing guy" while also revealing that the FBI is looking into the issue.
"I believe he is suffering greatly," Trump said of Huang.
But "the odds have increased that Congress will enact tougher export control legislation as part of the National Defense Authorization Act," Veda Partners wrote in a note to clients on Monday, adding that oversight of Nvidia "will also intensify this year and next Congress under Democrats' control."
The new push from Warren came after a New York Times report that the Commerce Department had an investigation into the Singaporean company suspected of smuggling Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips into China suddenly halted late last year after receiving an email from Nvidia's general counsel seeking information.
It was the latest twist in a rapidly evolving scandal that broke open Sunday when Nvidia's board launched an investigation into Huang's extramarital affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, who was the CEO of Singaporean company Megaspeed International.
The company's board said it "has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised."
"NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's confirmation of a relationship with a suspected spy for China's intelligence service makes these national security concerns even more urgent and raises important questions NVIDIA must answer about the extent to which these activities were related," Warren and Banks said in their statement.
The new push for the AI OVERWATCH measure — an acronym for the Artificial Intelligence Oversight of Verified Exports and Restrictions on Weaponizable Advanced Technology to Covered High-Risk Actors Act — comes as other bills to rein in US chip exports appear to be gaining momentum, underscoring how Republicans may also pressure Nvidia in the coming weeks before Democrats take over in January.
Lawmakers are considering a bill called the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act, which aims to tighten international export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
The bill is making its way through the committee process with bipartisan support, with 21 Republicans and 10 Democrats having signed on as co-sponsors.
This weekend's flurry of news "will likely strengthen congressional support for legislation such as the MATCH Act," Raymond James' Ed Mills and Andy Kellam wrote in a note to clients.
The bill, they wrote, "offers a narrower opportunity for Republicans to work with the administration on restrictions that preserve some flexibility for negotiations with the Netherlands and Japan, particularly regarding servicing existing equipment in China, while a new Congress [in January] could result in stronger restrictions or the removal of presidential discretion. "
Another bill in focus is the Chip Security Act, which would require new security mechanisms for advanced chips that can verify their location before being moved to a foreign country.
The bill would also require government notification if there is "credible information that the product has been diverted away from its intended location or has been subjected to tampering."
All three bills have been building bipartisan support for months but have gained new momentum amid the swirl of the scandal.
A Warren aide confirmed Monday that the senator — who is expected to take the gavel of the Senate's powerful banking committee next year — also has plans to "use her Chairmanship to help shape rules for AI at home and abroad."
New legislation is just one front in the political fallout around Nvidia. House Republicans are requesting that Huang voluntarily appear, while the White House is facing questions after it was reported that Trump was briefed on the security concerns and did nothing.
"I think there will be tough questions asked about Nvidia's security protocols and, and rightfully so, but I think the bigger questions are going to be about Nvidia's relationship with Trump and Trump's relationship with Nvidia," Chris Miller of Tufts University said in an appearance Monday on Yahoo Finance.
"It deserves to be investigated because it not only put a US company and a US person at risk, but also illustrates a lack of seriousness about the Chinese challenge," Miller said.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
