Overwatch Act Pushes US AI Chip Shield
Joe Allen appeared on War Room with Steve Bannon to lay out the case for the Overwatch Act. The bill comes from Rep. Brian Mast and aims to make it harder for hostile states to buy AI-capable chips from U.S. companies.
On the show, Bannon made a blunt point about the geopolitical stakes. He said, “The Chinese Communist Party is a sworn enemy of the United States.” He then warned sharply: “Anything that helps the Chinese Communist Party build an ecosystem with chips, with training, with students, with money, with equity and debt. Anything that helps them with AI at all is bad, and must be stopped.”
Bannon pulled a Cold War comparison. He argued the U.S. shouldn’t be in the business of strengthening rivals with American tech and capital. “We did not help the Soviets during the height of the Cold War in the late 50s and early 60s. Spies gave them the atomic bomb, and spies gave them the hydrogen bomb,” he said. “We were not in the business of having American industry be in business with them and partners with them, and American capital, venture capital, private equity, anything, to help them finance it.”
Allen walked through how the Overwatch Act would work. He described a system of oversight and approvals aimed at choking off advanced chip exports to countries that could use them against the U.S.
“Steve, the controversy surrounds the Overwatch Act. The Overwatch Act is put forward by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast of Florida,” Allen said. His description continued: “The bill itself basically requires the Commerce Secretary, so that would presently be Howard Lutnick, to produce a national security strategy on chip exports. That would include the AI capabilities of adversaries that would include the indigenous chip production capacity of foreign adversaries.”
Under the plan, any U.S. firm seeking to export sensitive chips to a listed adversary would need to apply to Commerce. Congress would then review the applications. Allen said, “Any US company that wants to export to an adversary would have to submit an application to the Commerce Secretary or the Commerce Department, which would then go to Congress, and Congress would then review the application.”
If exports are judged to strengthen a foreign adversary, Congress could block them. Allen noted who’s on the list: “If it was determined that the chip exports would give an advantage to a foreign adversary, they specifically name China, North Korea, Venezuela, so on and so forth, then Congress would have the power to veto the export, to block the export.”
The opposition, Allen said, centers on commercial concerns. “The opposition is largely based on the fear that Nvidia won’t be able to expand their market even further into China,” he said. That argument pits national security against corporate profit. Supporters of the bill say security should come first.
The pitch is simple: keep advanced AI hardware away from regimes that would use it against America. The Overwatch Act tries to give lawmakers the final say. For backers, that’s basic defense. For critics, it’s economic interference. The debate is now in Congress.