Senators urge Lutnick to close remote access loophole in AI chip export controls

US Senators John Curtis, a Utah Republican, and Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat, have sent a letter urging Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to close loopholes in export controls on advanced AI chips, according to a release from Curtis's office.

The letter asks Commerce to condition licences for advanced AI chip exports on an agreement that recipients will not give Chinese companies remote access without a separate licence, and says the rule should not be limited to certain countries, or "China will simply rent access to chips elsewhere." It also urges limits on chip sales to US subsidiaries of Chinese companies and a licence requirement for large chip exports to non-trusted companies in countries with a high smuggling risk, including Southeast Asia.

The senators cite reports that former NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang was caught in a honeypot scheme "with a Chinese spy and executive at Megaspeed," which they describe as a Singaporean firm known to help Chinese companies circumvent export controls. They say Commerce has taken no action to tighten controls on Megaspeed. The letter also says Aivres, the US subsidiary of Entity List company Inspur, exported at least $5.6 billion of technology to Southeast Asia over two years, including more than $3 billion of computers with Blackwell chips.

The senators note that Congress is considering legislation on Commerce's authority over remote access to chips; congressional leaders have backed tighter export curbs since the Nvidia scandal.