What happened
Made public August 10-11, 2026, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar sent a letter to BIS Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler asking the agency to clarify and confirm that the Foundry Due Diligence Rule (which requires foundries/OSAT firms like TSMC to conduct customer due diligence before producing advanced AI chips) remains legally in effect and enforced, despite the rescission of the related AI Diffusion Rule. The letter cites reported instances (e.g., Sophgo-designed chips found inside Huawei AI processors) suggesting enforcement gaps and requests information on whether advanced chips are being diverted to China via foundries and packaging intermediaries.
Why it matters
This is a live congressional-oversight pressure point on a binding export-control mechanism that governs which entities may access advanced AI chips — a foundational input for who can train/run frontier AI models. Ambiguity in enforcement directly affects compute-access controls central to US AI national-security policy.
Action needed
Chip designers, foundries, and OSAT providers exporting advanced-node dies should monitor for BIS clarification guidance on the Foundry Due Diligence Rule's continued applicability and tighten customer due-diligence documentation.