The U.S. Senate advanced sweeping AI legislation under the National Defense Authorization Act, requiring chipmakers to first serve U.S. customers before exporting advanced processors abroad.
Thursday, senators pass The Ensuring National Access and Innovation in Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026, or GAIN Act, as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, requiring manufacturers of AI and high-performance chips to prioritize domestic orders before exporting their products.
THE EARN The law also gives Congress the right to deny export licenses for the highest-end AI processors and imposes export licenses for all products containing an “advanced integrated circuit.”
“In recent years, US companies have regularly faced delays in purchasing chips. By the end of 2024, Nvidia’s Blackwell line was reserved about 12 months in advance,” according to to the policy advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation.
Applicants must demonstrate that all U.S. orders have been filled before the export license is granted under the NDAA for fiscal year 2026.
However, the GAIN AI Act is an amendment to the NDAA, and both must still be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the President before becoming law.
This leaves the final provisions of the NDAA up for negotiation with Congress, with no guarantee that the GAIN Act will become law in its current form, if at all.
Export restrictions on artificial intelligence and high-performance computer chips could negatively impact the crypto mining industry, which is global in scope and already is. feel the economic pain trade tensions, making equipment more difficult to acquire.
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Tariffs and trade wars hit mining industry hard
THE reciprocal trade rates announced by US President Donald Trump in April sent crypto prices crashing and created more difficult conditions for a highly competitive mining industry.
Crypto mining hardware manufacturing relies on international supply chains that are now subject to tariffs, increasing the cost of hardware and reducing miner profitability.
CleanSpark, a US-based mining company, faces liabilities of $185 million in July after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claimed some of the mining equipment ordered by the company came from China.
IREN, another crypto miner in the United States, faced a $100 million bill due to claims that the hardware was subject to increased trade duties.
Prices could also drop in mining hardware prices outside the United Statesleaving U.S.-based miners at a competitive disadvantage and eroding the U.S. share of the global hashrate, the amount of computing power dedicated to securing crypto networks.
Losing hashing power would harm the Trump administration’s stated goal of turning the United States into crypto capital of the world.
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