At AI Hearing, Warren Probes Witnesses on National Security, Economic Risks of Unregulated Big Tech

June 11, 2026

At AI Hearing, Warren Probes Witnesses on National Security, Economic Risks of Unregulated Big Tech

Warren, committee members call for markup on bipartisan legislation to prevent advanced AI chips from flowing to China

"Congress can no longer be a bystander as the risks from AI grow nearer... It is time for Congress to stand up so the American people can share in the success of this technology - and not just be left holding the bag for whatever goes wrong."

Watch hearing here

Washington, D.C. - At today's hearing, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, raised concerns about the national security risks of allowing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to end up in China and warned that American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill of a Big Tech-driven financial crash from irresponsible debt-financing of AI projects.

"AI holds tremendous promise. But Americans are rightly concerned that it could further rig our economy. Congress can no longer be a bystander as the risks from AI grow nearer and millions more American chips are sent to China. It is time for Congress to stand up so that the American people can share in the success of this technology - and not just be left holding the bag for whatever goes wrong," stated Ranking Member Warren.

Below is Ranking Member Warren's opening statementas delivered:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing. Artificial intelligence has extraordinary potential and presents extraordinary risks. Americans across this country are deeply concerned about how artificial intelligence will affect their lives.

Americans are also concerned about what looks like corruption in plain sight driving the Trump Administration's AI policy.

Influential tech giants are concentrating ownership over powerful technologies and attempting to rewrite the rules that govern them. A corrupt Trump Administration basically is giving them whatever they want. The impact on American families is massive.

First: AI companies are on a spending spree to build data centers. This is the infrastructure that supports AI, and families in areas surrounding these data centers are already paying a price. Residential electricity prices - which have risen more than 16% since Trump took office - are expected to climb as much as 40% more by 2030. Nearly one in three households is struggling to pay their utility bills. The Trump administration's response has been a weak request for voluntary commitments from big corporations-and that leaves families footing the bill.

Second: AI companies are addicted to debt. Early in AI development, these companies financed their own investments, but now they are borrowing upwards of a trillion dollars to finance spending on data centers, chips, and other AI infrastructure. They borrow from private credit funds that, in turn, borrow from banks. This means that if AI tumbles, it will bring down many in private credit and that, in turn, will risk bringing down giant banks.

The possible failure of AI companies looms larger every day. AI companies that are unable to increase revenues and service their massive debt loads could trigger massive losses in the financial sector and another 2008-style crash. That, in turn, could wipe out huge amounts of value from Americans' retirement accounts.

Third: Americans are worried about what will happen to their jobs in a world of rapidly improving AI capabilities. AI has already started reshaping the workforce. While we don't know what the long-term effects on employment will be, we cannot wait around to see how many jobs will be eliminated before we start to prepare for the coming upheaval.

We have a decision to make: either AI will profit a handful of the richest people, making them even richer, or the benefits of AI will be used for all Americans. If we continue to do nothing, the billionaires will suck up all the value from AI. But if we start now to tax AI and use that money to fund free education, apprenticeships, and encourage new job creation for the workforce, we can share the benefits of AI across our country.

Before we hear from our witnesses, I want to raise one other issue. China is also working feverishly to develop AI, including AI weapons systems that can be turned against the US.

One company, NVIDIA, makes the chips that are powering AI's advances. In recent years, NVIDIA's valuation has ballooned to nearly $5 trillion dollars. That makes NVIDIA the world's biggest company and NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang a very powerful person. And Mr. Huang wants to sell NVIDIA's chips to China which will profit his own company and advance China's AI development.

Now, I invited NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang to testify at this hearing. He refused to join us.

I invited Mr. Huang because he and NVIDIA are lobbying hard to get a blank check from the Trump Administration to allow the sale of advanced chips to China. Mr. Huang's efforts have alarmed senior military leaders, who have warned that such technology could strengthen China's military and put our own national security at risk.

No matter. In Trump's DC, money talks, and President Trump appears to be giving policy handouts to the highest bidder. If it's not plain old-fashioned bribery, it sure smells like it.

Mr. Huang and NVIDIA have been active here in DC.

NVIDIA donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration.

Mr. Huang made a big donation to Trump's favorite project - his gold-encrusted ballroom.

Mr. Huang wheedled his way into a seat on Air Force One on the President's summit with President Xi in China.

Mr. Huang even managed to score a meeting with President Xi himself, along with President Trump, about NVIDIA's business interests.

All that sucking up to the President has paid off big-time for Mr. Huang.

America had strong export controls that would have blocked NVIDIA from selling these chips to China, but the Trump administration is relaxing these rules. The Trump administration has also turned a blind eye as massive numbers of these chips have been sold elsewhere, then somehow magically made it to China.

The American people deserve to hear Mr. Huang answer hard questions - from both sides - about the role he has played in undermining our national security.

AI holds tremendous promise. But Americans are rightly concerned that it could further rig our economy. Congress can no longer be a bystander as the risks from AI grow nearer and millions more American chips are sent to China. It is time for Congress to stand up so that the American people can share in the success of this technology - and not just be left holding the bag for whatever goes wrong.

Below is Ranking Member Warren's exchangewith the witnesses as delivered:

Sen. Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, we need to address the serious national security risks of allowing advanced AI chips to end up in China. Last week, the New York Times reported that Nvidia's chips have been "sought by nearly every branch of the Chinese military." And China has been getting its hands on this technology. Federal prosecutors allege that billions of dollars of chips and servers have been unlawfully diverted to China during the Trump Administration. Now, I invited Nvidia's CEO here to testify. He has claimed there is no evidence of chip diversion and that the Chinese military doesn't want his chips. But he will not show up here to repeat those claims under oath. Mr. Feith, you served on President Trump's National Security Council until last year. How worried should we be about these chips falling into the wrong hands?

Mr. Feith: Thanks, Senator. I think, very worried. The implications are significant in ways that you pointed out. In part, military, domestic repression, also China's commercial strategic ambitions. There's an important additional aspect which is that if we sell them these chips it helps China compete against us in third markets around the world. It helps them export their Cloud, for example, and undermine the market for U.S. Cloud exports all around the world when we are interested in otherwise maximizing the exports of the AI tech stack of the United States around the world.

Sen. Warren: So, bad, bad, bad, is what I'm hearing you say. Congress has pending legislation to put a stop to that. Senator Banks and I have introduced the AI Overwatch Act, which would ban the export of advanced AI chips to China. [Senator Ricketts], Senator Kim and I have cosponsored the MATCH Act, which would ensure China is not getting the equipment it needs to manufacture advanced chips on its own.

And Senator Cotton and I have cosponsored the Chip Security Act, which would ensure that we can track when AI chips are smuggled. Mr. Feith, do you think Congress should pass these three bills?

Mr. Feith: Yes, and kudos on the bipartisanship.

Sen. Warren: Good. Mr. Chairman, there is broad support for these bills. I think we should mark these up, this legislation, this month, and I hope you'll have a chance to agree on that.

Chair Scott: Well, the Gentlewoman from Massachusetts, you yield the rest of your time?

Sen. Warren: No. [Laughter] So, I want to turn to how the AI boom is being funded. AI companies are on track to spend a whopping 7 trillion dollars on AI infrastructure by 2030 and are turning to shadowy financing alternatives to meet their financing needs. If the AI companies can't make payments on their huge debt loads, they could trigger massive losses across the financial system.

Dr. Myers West, if an AI bubble bursts, what would be the impact on families who may not have a single dollar of investment in an AI company? Would they be hurt?

Dr. Myers West: The impact on them would be significant, even if they haven't directly invested in AI, because we could see compounding effects across people's retirement funds, their pension funds. We'll see job layoffs and a potential credit freeze. The underlying conditions of our economy make us very ill-prepared to deal with this kind of market exposure and our social safety net is not well prepared for these kinds of conditions. So, it could be a perfect storm that will be felt most acutely by people already struggling to make things work and it would be irresponsible to look away.

Sen. Warren: Thank you for that answer. You know, AI executives are already well aware of what's at stake and they are right now trying to lay the groundwork to leave American taxpayers holding the bag if their big bets go bust.

OpenAI, for example, has pushed the Trump administration to "lean in" and assist the industry by "de-risking AI expansion," including expanding federal tax incentives and loan guarantees for AI companies, so I'd like to get our panel of experts on the record and go down the line. One sentence, or even one word. Would you support the Trump Administration bailing out Big Tech CEOs and AI companies? Dr. Myers West?

Dr. Myers West: I would not support a bailout of the AI industry.

Sen. Warren: Mr. Rinehart?

Mr. Rinehart: Goodness no.

Sen. Warren: I like that. Mr. Feith?

Mr. Feith: Hard to generalize. I would say there are some funds that come from places like the CHIPS act that the Commerce Department still has and could use very productively.

Sen. Warren: I understand that, but do you want to bail out AI if these bets go bad?

Mr. Feith: I think the CHIPS Act on on-shoring semiconductor manufacturing is a better bet.

Sen. Warren: Mr. Flynn?

Mr. Flynn: I would agree with David. I would also say that I haven't seen any particular proposal.

Sen. Warren: I'm sorry?

Mr. Flynn: I haven't seen any particular proposal, but I'm happy to take it back.

Sen. Warren: Happy to take it back? I'm out of time, but I've gotta say, trying to backpedal on the question of whether or not these guys should make trillion dollar bets and then be able to turn around and say to the American public that taxpayers are going to bail us out -- we did that in 2008, shouldn't be doing it again.

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