AsianFin -- Nvidia is under renewed pressure from Washington as U.S. lawmakers push for stricter controls to prevent its high-end AI chips from ending up in China, according to Reuters on Monday.

Representative Bill Foster is spearheading a legislative effort that would give the Department of Commerce six months to implement new tracking rules aimed at curbing smuggling of restricted semiconductors. The proposed system would monitor where AI chips go after sale—and potentially disable them if they’re found in unauthorized locations.

“The tools already exist,” said Foster, noting that Nvidia chips can support geolocation functions. He also pointed to companies like Alphabet, which already use similar tracking methods to oversee their own data center hardware.

The effort follows revelations that banned Nvidia chips have appeared in Chinese servers powering advanced AI platforms like DeepSeek, despite tighter U.S. export restrictions.

The draft bill is gaining bipartisan momentum, with members of both parties on the House Select Committee on China backing the plan. Lawmakers say the proposal would involve a two-pronged approach: first, using latency-based geolocation to confirm where chips are operating, and second, ensuring those chips can’t boot if they’re in prohibited regions.