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The U.S. Treasury Department proposed a rule Thursday to crack down on American high-tech investments such as supercomputing and artificial intelligence in China, Russia, North Korea and other \u201ccountries of concern.”<\/p>\n
The U.S. government has been working for years to deny China and other adversaries investments that could help them boost their military power.<\/p>\n
That program began in 2023 when then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order putting restrictions on outbound U.S. investments in sectors such as semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence going into China. Treasury later established the Outbound Investment Security Program.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, Congress passed a law that codified and expanded the program to target more technologies and more foreign countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of Russia in the proposed rule has come days after President Donald Trump waived sanctions on Russia following a diesel deal with President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
The rule announced Thursday would expand the restrictions to cover investments in hypersonic systems capable of traveling at five times the speed of sound, supercomputing, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, though Treasury used Trump’s favored term for AI, \u201csuperintelligence” or SI.<\/p>\n
The proposed rule \u201csends an important signal to markets that Washington is tracking where U.S. capital is flowing and what capabilities it is helping build,\u201d said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.<\/p>\n
The screening of outbound investments \u201crecognizes that capital can accelerate military-relevant capabilities just as surely as technology transfer can,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n
Jason Chipman, a former Justice Department lawyer who specializes in cybersecurity, investment rules and export controls as a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, said the new rule \u201cwill require more substantial compliance programs to manage risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treasury’s rule to implement the 2025 law \u2014 the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act \u2014 would only apply to investments that exceed $50,000 and would exclude many financial investments, including stock purchases.<\/p>\n
Treasury will hear public comments on the proposal before issuing a final rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just the first step in a fairly long process to get to changes which presumably will be more enforcement-minded, to put more teeth behind the outbound investment program,\u201d said former U.S. trade official Ryan Majerus, now a partner at King & Spalding law firm.<\/p>\n
In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the U.S. should abide by the principles of a market economy and stop interfering in normal economic and trade cooperation between businesses.<\/p>\n
Asked about Washington\u2019s proposal to add biotechnology to the list, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that \u201cOverstretching the concept of national security, taking discriminatory measures against specific countries, and artificially restricting trade, economic and investment activities serve no one\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that China will closely monitor relevant developments and take necessary measures to safeguard its interests.<\/p>\n
Since Trump’s first term, the United States and China \u2014 the world’s two biggest economies \u2014 have been locked in an economic and tech rivalry. They’ve restricted the export of sensitive technology and critical products \u2014 such as China’s rare earth minerals and America’s advanced computer chips \u2014 to each other and slapped tariffs on each other’s products. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed last year to ease tensions while they engaged in talks, a temporary truce they last month extended into January.<\/p>\n
But the sparring continues. In July, the Treasury Department issued a $200,000 fine against a U.S.-based company for failing to report to the department a $92,500 investment in a Chinese artificial intelligence and robotics company by one of its subsidiaries.<\/p>\n
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/p>\n
#Treasury #proposes #rule #crack #biotech #investments #greater #China #Russia #countries #concern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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