NVIDIA Corp ( NVDA ) shares closed higher Thursday as investors weighed fresh Washington scrutiny of the chipmaker's China business against still-robust AI demand.

Here’s what investors need to know.

NVIDIA ( NVDA ) stock is moving in positive territory. What’s driving NVDA shares up?

What To Know: A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has proposed the Secure and Feasible Exports Chips Act, which would bar Nvidia ( NVDA ) from selling its high-end H200 and next-generation Blackwell processors to China for 30 months by forcing the Commerce Department to deny export licences for those parts, the Financial Times reported.

The move comes as the White House debates whether to let Nvidia ( NVDA ) ship the H200 to Chinese customers, a step some officials fear would sharply boost Beijing's AI capabilities, the FT noted.

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) argued that America's lead in artificial intelligence rests on its control of cutting-edge compute power and called locking China out of Nvidia's ( NVDA ) most advanced chips “essential,” according to the Financial Times.

Democrat Chris Coons warned that the AI race will shape the rest of the century and said the outcome will determine whether systems reflect U.S. market values or those of the Chinese Communist Party.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang, who met President Donald Trump and Republican senators this week, has pushed back, telling lawmakers Beijing will not accept deeply "degraded" products and that U.S. firms should be allowed to sell their most competitive chips, the FT reported. Nvidia ( NVDA ) said in response to critics that AI should be widely available and "is not an atomic bomb," according to the FT.

Recent headlines around Nvidia ( NVDA ) include Huang's criticism of state-by-state AI rules and his warning that sweeping U.S. curbs have already driven its China data-center share from about 95% to effectively zero.

The company has also clarified that a much-discussed potential $100 billion direct supply deal with OpenAI is still only at the letter-of-intent stage, while downplaying competitive threats from Google's in-house TPUs.

Last month, Nvidia ( NVDA ) reported record third-quarter revenue of $57 billion, driven by surging demand for its Blackwell data-center chips, and guided to another strong quarter, reinforcing bullish sentiment around the stock.

Benzinga Edge Rankings: Benzinga Edge ranks Nvidia ( NVDA ) with exceptionally strong Growth (97.26) and Quality (92.77) scores.

NVDA Price Action: Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares were up 2.15% during regular trading and up 0.09% in after-hours trading on Thursday, last trading at $183.61, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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How To Buy NVDA Stock

Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share – or fractional share – of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument.

For example, in Nvidia’s case, it is in the Information Technology sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment.

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