The US Treasury has proposed new restrictions on American investment in high-risk technologies in China, Russia, North Korea and other countries designated as concerns, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology and supercomputing.
The measures would also cover hypersonic systems capable of travelling at five times the speed of sound. Treasury described artificial intelligence using President Donald Trump’s preferred term, “superintelligence”, or SI.
The proposed rule would implement and expand legislation passed by Congress in December 2025, known as the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act. It follows an executive order signed by then-president Joe Biden in 2023 covering US investment in Chinese semiconductor, quantum computing and artificial intelligence sectors.
The programme was later formalised by Treasury as the Outbound Investment Security Program. The 2025 law extended its reach to additional technologies and countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
Russia’s inclusion comes days after Mr Trump waived sanctions on the country following a diesel deal with President Vladimir Putin.
The proposed restrictions would apply only to investments exceeding 50,000 dollars and would exclude many financial transactions, including stock purchases. Treasury is expected to consider public comments before issuing a final version.
Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said the proposal “sends an important signal to markets that Washington is tracking where U.S. capital is flowing and what capabilities it is helping build”.
He said the screening of outbound investment “recognizes that capital can accelerate military-relevant capabilities just as surely as technology transfer can”.
Jason Chipman, a former Justice Department lawyer and cybersecurity specialist at WilmerHale, said the changes “will require more substantial compliance programs to manage risk”.
Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official who is now a partner at King & Spalding, described the proposal as “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”.
China’s Foreign Ministry urged the US to respect market economy principles and stop interfering in normal economic and trade cooperation between businesses.
Asked about the proposed addition of biotechnology, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “Overstretching the concept of national security, taking discriminatory measures against specific countries, and artificially restricting trade, economic and investment activities serve no one’s interests.”
She said China would closely monitor developments and take necessary measures to protect its interests.
The US and China have remained locked in a wider economic and technology rivalry since Mr Trump’s first term, restricting exports of sensitive products and imposing tariffs on one another. Their presidents agreed last year to ease tensions while talks continued, with a temporary truce extended into January last month.
Despite that arrangement, enforcement of restrictions on investment has continued. In July, Treasury fined a US-based company 200,000 dollars for failing to report a 92,500-dollar investment by one of its subsidiaries in a Chinese artificial intelligence and robotics company.
