The US Senate has advanced sweeping AI legislation under the National Defense Authorization Act, obliging chipmakers to service American customers before exporting advanced processors abroad.
On Thursday, Senator pass The Guarantee of Access and Innovation to Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026, or GAIN Act, as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, requires AI and high-performance chip makers to prioritize domestic orders before exporting their products.
to get The Act also gives Congress the authority to deny export licenses for most high-end AI processors and mandates export licenses for all products containing “advanced integrated circuits.”
“Over the past several years, U.S. companies have faced regular backlogs in purchasing chips. Nvidia’s Blackwell line, due in late 2024, was booked nearly 12 months in advance,” According For the policy advocacy group “Americans for Responsible Innovation”.
Applicants must demonstrate that all US orders have been filled before being granted an export license NDAA For the financial year 2026.
However, the GAIN AI Act is an amendment to the NDAA, and must both be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the President before becoming law.
This leaves the final provisions in the NDAA up to congressional negotiation, with no guarantee that the GAIN Act will become law in its current form or at all.
Export restrictions on artificial intelligence and high-performance computer chips could have a negative impact on the crypto mining industry, which is global in scope and already feeling the economic pain from trade tensions that have made hardware harder to acquire.
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Tariff and trade wars hit the mining industry hard
Reciprocating trade tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump in April sent crypto prices crashing and created more challenging conditions for the highly competitive mining industry.
Crypto mining hardware manufacturing relies on international supply chains that are now subject to tariffs, increasing hardware costs and reducing miner profitability.
US-based mining company CleanSpark faced a $185 million liability in July after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claimed that some mining hardware ordered by the company originated in China.
IREN, another crypto miner in the US, faced a $100 million bill due to claims that the hardware was subject to inflated trading fees.
Tariffs could also depress the prices of mining hardware outside the US, putting US-based miners at a competitive disadvantage and reducing the United States’ share of the global hashrate, the amount of computing power devoted to securing crypto networks.
Losing hash power would undermine the Trump administration’s stated goal of turning the US into the crypto capital of the world.
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