Today, the AI Policy Network led a coalition of AI policy organizations and national security experts in support of the bipartisan Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act, legislation to keep frontier AI development in America and with our allies rather than in the People’s Republic of China. In a letter to Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Andy Kim (D-NJ), AIPN President Mark Beall and fourteen co-signers urged the Senate Banking Committee to swiftly consider the legislation.

“Our allies have not kept pace with these controls, putting our companies at a commercial disadvantage while accelerating China… The MATCH Act ends a system where American firms alone bear the cost of restraint while China’s chipmaking ambitions advance anyway,” the coalition warned.

The letter text and the full list of signatories are available here and below.

Dear Senator Ricketts and Senator Kim,

We are writing in support of  S.4281, the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act. American leadership in AI is essential to preserving our national security and the shared values that underpin our strategic alliances and trade partnerships. Development of more and more powerful frontier AI models depends on access to hundreds of thousands of semiconductor chips. The MATCH Act will keep that development here at home and with our allies, rather than in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

This is especially important given that artificial intelligence models are rapidly gaining capabilities across a wide variety of national security domains. AI companies say they are developing even more powerful AI models that can match or exceed human intelligence across almost all cognitive domains. New approaches to export control and rigorous enforcement are needed to prevent the PRC from developing a similar capability. 

For now, the PRC’s strategic position is dire. Chinese AI companies have ordered more than two million American AI chips, several times the computing power China can manufacture domestically this year. And even these “domestic” advanced chips are not truly domestic – they depend on deep ultraviolet immersion (DUVi) lithography systems built by ASML of the Netherlands and on equipment and servicing from Japan’s Tokyo Electron.

The United States has recognized the strategic importance of denying the PRC access to these tools, and as a result American semiconductor equipment firms now comply with the strictest export controls in the world. However, our allies have not kept pace with these controls, putting our companies at a commercial disadvantage while accelerating China. This is made even more unfair given that the tools sold by these allied firms rely on American components. MATCH gives a clear mandate to negotiate aligned multilateral controls, and furthermore closes the servicing and entity-specific loopholes that have allowed the PRC to keep its existing fabs running. The MATCH Act ends a system where American firms alone bear the cost of restraint while China’s chipmaking ambitions advance anyway.

We commend you for the introduction of the bipartisan MATCH Act and urge the Senate Banking Committee to swiftly consider this legislation, alongside other strong export control legislation which will protect America’s technological edge and promote American AI.

Sincerely,

Mark Beall, President, The AI Policy Network

Benji Gering, Research Fellow, Foundation for American Innovation

Samuel Hammond, Chief Economist, Foundation for American Innovation

Caleb Knapp, Senior Policy Manager, The Alliance for Secure AI

Riki Parikh, Policy Director, The Alliance for Secure AI

Chris McGuire, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Connor Pfeiffer, Senior Director of Government Relations, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies Action

Eric Gastfriend, Executive Director, Americans for Responsible Innovation

Erich Grunewald, Senior Researcher for Compute Policy, Institute for AI Policy and Strategy

Michelle Nie, Visiting Fellow, Technology and National Security, Center for a New American Security

Nick Brown, Former Senior Advisor, Bureau of Industry and Security

Saif Khan, Former Director for Technology and National Security, National Security Council

Tim Fist, Director of Emerging Technology Policy, Institute for Progress

Varun Kovi, Center for AI Safety Action Fund

With Honor Action