U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the Select Committee on China, on April 15 sponsored legislation that would establish a clear standard for export controls on the sale of advanced semiconductors to China.
Specifically, the Semiconductor Controls Adjusted to Limit Exports (SCALE) Act, H.R. 8306, would require regular assessments of U.S. adversaries’ capabilities and link export controls to measurable thresholds to create a predictable, enforceable system that bolsters America’s leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and denies strategic competitors the ability to achieve parity with the United States.
“The SCALE Act will help secure the future of America’s dominance in artificial intelligence by ensuring American companies never sell the best chips in the world to China,” Rep. Moolenaar said. “By grounding semiconductor export controls in objective metrics, we can ensure a level playing field for American business, while protecting national security as China races to catch up to us.”
H.R. 8306 would direct the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the director of National Intelligence, to create and publicly release objective performance metrics on China’s AI hardware capabilities.
The metrics used would include key indicators, such as total processing power, interconnect bandwidth, and memory capacity, and would be updated regularly to reflect real-world developments in the AI race, according to Rep. Moolenaar’s bill summary.
Additionally, H.R. 8306 would establish a rolling technical threshold for exports tied directly to an adversary’s demonstrated ability to produce advanced chips at scale. Under this framework, exports would be permitted only up to 110 percent of the performance of chips that U.S. adversaries can already manufacture domestically at meaningful production levels that could be defined as at least 25 percent of their annual demand.
In turn, this would ensure that American and allied companies could continue competing in global markets where it is safe to do so, without enabling breakthroughs that adversaries cannot achieve on their own, the summary says.
Among other provisions, the bill includes strict safeguards to prevent adversaries from closing the gap with the U.S., and license applications would be subject to a presumption of denial if exports would cause adversary-controlled AI hardware to exceed 5 percent of the total U.S. AI hardware base.