By the week Nvidia disclosed its chief executive’s resignation, six congressional committees had a chair or ranking member on record with a request on Nvidia this month, by our count, and the Senate Banking Committee named hearing dates of 3 and 10 December. The Federal Register still shows no rule adding any entity to the Commerce Department’s Entity List since 9 October 2025, 401 days, by our count.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC on 13 November that four parts of the administration wanted Nvidia customer Megaspeed on that list: “Treasury, War, USTR and State, they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months”.
Business Pill · Sovereign AI Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on sovereign AI, why governments want control over AI chips and compute. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss this week’s bills or the Entity List.
The key insight: As we read the week, Congress, Treasury and an AI lab moved on chip exports while the step Commerce can take by rule alone did not: hearings were dated and 15 bills are pending, but the Entity List has had no addition in 401 days, by our count.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott asked former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to testify on 3 December and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on 10 December, the committee’s Republican account said (our hearing piece). That is 19 and 26 days from today, by our count; House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast described a testimony window that closes at Thanksgiving on 26 November.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters “I’m in favor of limiting those exports, and I think there’s a developing consensus in Congress that is an important position to take”, Reuters reported (our Speaker piece).
By our count of the official bill status files, 15 bills in this Congress would change controls on advanced chips, chipmaking equipment or remote access; none is law (our map of the bills). The Remote Access Security Act passed the House by 369 votes to 22 on 12 January, 306 days ago by our arithmetic, and sits with the Senate Banking Committee (our remote-access piece).
Washington’s chip-export week by count: bills in this Congress that would change the controls, congressional committees with a chair or ranking member on record with a request on Nvidia, agencies the Treasury Secretary said favoured listing Megaspeed, Senate hearing dates set, and Entity List addition rules since 9 October 2025 (Federal Register). Counts are ours from the sources named.
The Lobbying and the Rule-Writing
OpenAI told Hill offices it supports three bills, the Chip Security Act, the MATCH Act and the AI OVERWATCH Act, Punchbowl News reported, and Bloomberg reported OpenAI is backing the bipartisan effort, citing people familiar (our OpenAI piece). Their House versions cleared the Foreign Affairs Committee by a combined 120 votes to 10, by our arithmetic.
The Commerce Department is preparing to finalize a rule that would stop Chinese AI companies from remotely using advanced chips through data centres in other countries, The Information reported, according to an Investing.com summary. The rule would extend the controls to seven more countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the report said (the same piece).
The List That Did Not Move
Bessent pressed Lutnick on why Megaspeed had not been added to the Entity List, Axios reported on 11 November; the New York Times reported the same day that Bessent confronted Lutnick over why the administration had not restricted advanced chip sales to Megaspeed (our report). On CNBC he said the decision is not Treasury’s: “Commerce, BIS, has the pen. And you will have to ask them about their internal processes” (our Bessent piece).
The Federal Register’s last rule titled Additions to the Entity List was published on 9 October 2025. The three Entity List rules published since then only removed an entity or addresses, and the eCFR copy of the list, current to 9 November, has no entry for Megaspeed, as our earlier pieces found.
The Structural Read
As we read the Treasury Secretary’s words, the disagreement is inside the administration: four agencies favoured listing Megaspeed, and the decision sits with Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
As we read the bill record, Congress has moved slowly on its own tools: the Remote Access Security Act passed the House 306 days ago, by our arithmetic, and none of the 15 bills is law.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, CNBC Squawk Box, 13 November 2026
“Commerce, BIS, has the pen. And you will have to ask them about their internal processes.”
Three Implications
FOR CHIP EXPORTERS The Entity List has had no addition rule since 9 October 2025, the Federal Register shows; four agencies favoured listing Megaspeed, the Treasury Secretary said.
FOR AI LABSOpenAI backs three named export bills, Punchbowl reported; their House versions cleared committee by a combined 120 to 10, by our arithmetic.
FOR THE DECEMBER CALENDAR Senate Banking asked Jensen Huang and Howard Lutnick to testify on 3 December and 10 December, the committee said.
The framework argues the physical supply chain is “creating geopolitical leverage that operates independently of who has the best models.”
As we read it, export controls are the policy side of that leverage, and this week Congress and the administration debated who should hold it. The framework does not discuss Megaspeed, the Entity List or this week’s bills.
The calendar, in days from 14 November 2026: since the last Federal Register rule adding entities to the Entity List (9 October 2025), since the House vote on the Remote Access Security Act (12 January 2026), and to the Senate Banking hearing dates. Our arithmetic.
What Is Not Established
Commerce has not said whether it plans to list Megaspeed, and no final remote-access rule has been published; the report about that rule rests on a summary of a paywalled article. OpenAI’s position was reported citing people familiar with it. This piece makes no claim about Megaspeed’s conduct.
We read the Federal Register record and our earlier pieces built on each official’s and outlet’s own words; the agencies were not contacted for this piece.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
This month six congressional committees put requests on Nvidia on record, by our count; two Senate hearings were dated; OpenAI told Hill offices it backs three export bills, Punchbowl reported; and Commerce was reported to be readying a remote-access rule. The Entity List, which Commerce controls by rule, has had no addition in 401 days, by our count, while four agencies favoured listing Megaspeed, the Treasury Secretary said.
A note on sourcing. This analysis combines seven of our pieces from 11 to 13 November, each built on its primary source or named outlet, with the Federal Register record of Entity List rules, re-read on 14 November. Counts of days, bills and committees are ours. This piece makes no claim about any company’s conduct.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
