U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs lawmakers urge Commerce Department to pause and reassess Nvidia AI chip export licenses after Supermicro diversion indictment

U.S. Senators Jim Banks and Elizabeth Warren, the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to immediately pause and conduct a full review of active export licenses for advanced Nvidia artificial intelligence chips and related server systems following a Department of Justice indictment tied to alleged diversion to China. The letter cites allegations that three individuals linked to Super Micro Computer, Inc., including a company co-founder, conspired to export about USD 510 million in servers loaded with restricted Nvidia AI chips to China via shell companies and overseas front entities. The senators asked BIS to review licenses for shipments destined for China and Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore, and questioned whether licensing decisions should rely on executive assurances, pointing to Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s prior public statement that there was no evidence of AI chip diversion. They argued the alleged diversion raises concerns about the adequacy of Nvidia’s compliance and supply-chain monitoring and stressed that Nvidia’s due diligence obligations under the Export Administration Regulations, including end-user and end-use controls, cannot be waived or outsourced.