Nvidia Corp. privately told Representative Bill Foster that the anti-smuggling chip-tracking measures in the Chip Security Act are technically feasible, even as the Semiconductor Industry Association — of which Nvidia is a member — publicly called those same mandates "new, untested, and potentially infeasible"1.
Foster, a Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and a cosponsor of the Chip Security Act, recounted the private discussions in an interview with MIT Technology Review published on November 12. "They never put anything in writing," Foster said, but during technical discussions on the possibility of such safeguards, Nvidia's reaction was "yeah, of course we can do this".
The bill and its opposition
The Chip Security Act, introduced in May 2025, would impose geotracking requirements to verify the location of advanced AI chips and prevent their smuggling to China. It is one of three chip-security bills under consideration for inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act. The Semiconductor Industry Association opposed the bill in March 2026, writing that its tracking mandates were "potentially infeasible".
Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment or confirmation of Foster's characterization of the private discussions. In a separate exchange, Nvidia declined to answer directly whether its own Fleet Intelligence tool — announced in December 2025 to let customers monitor chip performance across data center locations — could be used to prevent smuggling, instead sending a statement saying governments and media have found insignificant diversion of controlled US products. Nvidia had confirmed to Reuters that Fleet Intelligence could indicate which country chips were in.
In September, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology found that a ping-based tracking technique — requiring a GPU to send a location signal when it comes online — would be the most cost-effective option among the bill's proposed mechanisms.
Stricter legislation ahead
Foster told MIT Technology Review he intends to introduce new, stricter legislation in the new year. The proposed rule would require licenses to operate advanced GPUs; before a GPU could connect, its valid license would need to be verified2. If the current bill passes as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, the tracking mechanisms would only tell investigators where chips are located, not offer a way to disconnect smuggled units — a gap the new legislation would address.
The bills are drawing renewed attention following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's resignation and a reported affair with Alice Huang, who runs Megaspeed, a Singaporean firm now under investigation for smuggling advanced GPUs to China. Foster said the controversy has fueled support among his colleagues for the bill's requirements. A US Commerce Department inquiry into Megaspeed was reportedly halted after intervention by Nvidia.
ANALYSIS The gap between Nvidia's private technical acknowledgment and the Semiconductor Industry Association's public opposition puts the company on both sides of the feasibility debate — a position that complicates the trade group's credibility on the issue as the bill moves toward a floor vote.