The US Treasury has proposed regulations that would widen limits on American investment in chips, AI and biotech companies in China and Russia.
The department published the proposal on Thursday. It builds on the existing Outbound Investment Security Program rather than creating a new regime. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the rules "would strengthen the existing Outbound Investment Security Program to prevent our adversaries from using U.S. investment to develop critical technologies that threaten U.S. national security."
The wording matters. Bessent calls this a strengthening of a program already in place, which points to an expansion of current limits and not a change of direction. Because this is a proposal, the rules are not final.
The move fits a pattern. Washington has spent years restricting the technology itself, most visibly through export controls on advanced chips. Outbound investment rules go after a different channel: the capital and expertise that American funds can bring to foreign companies. Controlling both closes a gap that controls on products alone leave open.
The open question is how far the wider limits will reach, since the scope of a restriction on "critical technologies" depends on how narrowly or broadly each category is defined.