SCALE Act

The SCALE Act requires the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, to create a process for setting an annual standard for selling certain integrated circuits (AI hardware) to specified countries and entities of concern, based on assessments of their indigenous AI hardware capabilities.

Sec. 3, Export promotion and control policy: The Secretary and Director must establish and publicly release objective performance metrics for AI hardware in entities of concern within 180 days, including a classified annex. Metrics assess individual and aggregate AI hardware capability, and include total processing power, interconnect bandwidth, and memory capacity bandwidth. Within 90 days after each metric update, they must report to Congress assessing AI hardware quantity and quality in each country of concern, broken down by quarter and origin. The Secretary must adopt an export control policy for AI hardware to entities of concern, setting an annual upper limit for exports based on the assessment. The upper limit for any item cannot exceed 110% of the most capable item that meets an indigenous production threshold (sustained serial production fulfilling at least 25% of estimated annual aggregate demand among entities of concern). If no item meets that threshold, license applications are reviewed under a policy of denial. The upper limit cannot be lowered unless the Secretary provides a written determination of a specific national security threat. A license is required for any export or remote access to AI hardware to an entity of concern, reviewed under a presumption of denial if it would cause aggregate adversary AI hardware to exceed 5% of aggregate AI hardware in the U.S. The Secretary may update metrics after 24 months, with 90-day notice to Congress and subject to written objection from specified committees. License applications reviewed on other than a presumption of denial basis must include certifications regarding U.S. customer orders, aggregate processing performance limits, end-use restrictions, independent third-party testing, and restrictions on transferring model weights or providing remote access.

Sec. 4, Rules of construction: Nothing in this Act directs the Secretary to decontrol or reduce export control thresholds based on assessment findings, or to approve licenses for sales of AI hardware or software.

Sec. 5, Definitions: Defines key terms including AI hardware (certain integrated circuits and other items), aggregate estimated amount of AI hardware, aggregate estimated amount of adversary AI hardware, appropriate congressional committees, country of concern (including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and others), Director, entity of concern (based on laws, place of business, ownership, or government control), indigenous production (physically fabricated in China and designed by an entity of concern), remote access, and Secretary.