Senate Banking holds AI hearing; NVIDIA chief declines invitation

On 11 June 2026 the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs convened a full-committee hearing at 10:00 a.m. eastern daylight time in 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building titled “AI and the American Dream: Promoting Innovation, Affordability, and American Dominance.” Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) opened the hearing with prepared remarks framing the inquiry in terms of artificial-intelligence innovation, energy and compute affordability, and U.S. economic and national-security competitiveness; Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) opened with prepared remarks framing the inquiry in terms of national-security risk of advanced-AI-chip exports to the People’s Republic of China and systemic-financial risk of large-scale debt financing of AI capital expenditure.¹²³ The Committee took testimony from four witnesses: Mike Flynn, Senior Vice President and Counsel of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI); David Feith, Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute; Will Rinehart, Senior Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI); and Dr. Sarah Myers West, Co-Executive Director of AI Now Institute.⁴ NVIDIA Corporation president and chief executive officer Jensen Huang declined the separate written invitation of Ranking Member Warren of 6 June 2026 to appear before the Committee on AI export controls and AI capital-expenditure financing, citing scheduling commitments; the Ranking Member published the correspondence with NVIDIA as part of the hearing record.⁵⁶

1. The Committee’s jurisdiction over the hearing’s subject matter rests on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ charter under Senate Rule XXV(1)(d), which assigns jurisdiction over banking and financial institutions, federal monetary policy, public and private housing, and “international economic policy as it affects United States monetary affairs, credit, and financial institutions.” The witnesses’ testimony addressed AI-related financial-system exposure (concentration of debt financing in a small number of hyperscaler issuers and lessor structures), AI-related monetary-policy considerations (compute-and-power capital expenditure as a contributor to investment-side measures of the federal funds-rate-sensitive economy), and AI export-control implications for international credit and trade flows under the Export Administration Regulations administered by the Department of Commerce.⁷⁸

2. Senator Warren’s opening statement raised three operative concerns: (i) the export-control regime administered by the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 C.F.R. Parts 730-774, governing the export of advanced semiconductors and the supply chains for “advanced computing items”; (ii) the systemic-risk implications of large-scale leveraged financing of AI compute capital expenditure (data centres, GPU procurement, power infrastructure) by U.S. issuers and special-purpose vehicles; and (iii) the relationship between Section 3 of the 2 June 2026 Executive Order “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security” and the regulatory baseline for “frontier model” oversight. The Chair’s opening framing emphasised the regulatory-burden side and American AI-industry competitiveness.⁸⁹²

3. The four-witness panel reflected the Committee’s convention of seating institutional witnesses (industry- association counsel, think-tank fellows, and a public- interest organisation) rather than direct industry executives in a multi-witness format. Mike Flynn’s testimony as ITI Senior Vice President carried the information-technology industry-association perspective; ITI represents major U.S. technology firms including AI developers and infrastructure providers. David Feith’s Hudson Institute testimony addressed AI export-control policy and PRC strategic implications; Hudson is a foreign-policy think tank with stated focus on national security. Will Rinehart’s AEI testimony addressed regulatory-burden and innovation-policy issues; AEI is a centre-right think tank focused on free-market policy. Dr. Sarah Myers West’s testimony as AI Now Co-Executive Director addressed AI-system harms, labour-market effects, and concentration of AI-system control; AI Now is a non-profit research institute focused on AI accountability.^410111213

4. The hearing operates alongside the executive-branch AI policy framework set by the 2 June 2026 Executive Order “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security,” which directs the Department of the Treasury, the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management on 30- and 60-day deliverables, establishes a voluntary frontier-model benchmarking framework with developer-elective 30-day pre-release government access, and expressly disclaims any mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for AI-model development. The Committee’s hearing record is expected to inform Committee consideration of any forthcoming legislative vehicle on AI-system financing, AI export controls, or AI-system oversight; hearing transcripts and witness written testimony will be posted to the Committee’s public hearing record.⁹¹⁴