White House Releases National Security Science & Technology Strategy: What It Indicators for CFIUS, Outbound Investment, and Export Controls 

As mandated by Section 10612 of the CHIPS and Science Act, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued the National Security Science and Technology Strategy (NSSTS), which implements the S&T priorities of the 2025 National Security Strategy. While framed as a know-how technique, the NSSTS previews concrete near-term motion on CFIUS, outbound capital allocation, export controls, and federal analysis safety — direct touchpoints for shoppers in cross-border capital allocation, managed know-how, and federally funded R&D. 

Key Takeaways 

• CFIUS’ scope is about to develop. The Administration will search authority, in session with Congress, to observe high-risk “greenfield” investments and to develop CFIUS’s critical-technology jurisdiction, whereas persevering with to calibrate scrutiny to an investor’s “verifiable distance” from adversary-linked actors beneath the America First Investment Policy’s allied fast-track method. 
• Outbound capital allocation restrictions will broaden. Treasury will refine and sure develop the Outbound Investment Security Program (Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act of 2025) past its present scope – AI, quantum, semiconductors, supercomputers, and hypersonics – to achieve further sectors implicated by China’s military-civil fusion technique. Although the present NSSTS didn’t reference different nations by identify, the technique will seemingly be carried out in a manner that circumvents explicit investments in Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – according to President Trump’s “America-first capital allocation coverage,” revealed in February 2025. 
• Export controls: deregulation and new restrictions in parallel. BIS is streamlining choose controls (e.g., a January 2026 interim rule easing drone exports to allies beneath EO 14307) and will reform Missile Technology Control Regime implementation, even because the technique reaffirms the Data Security Program (EO 13873) defending bulk delicate private information from adversary entry. This posture could sign that BIS is contemplating suspending the 50% rule for one more 12 months (i.e., till November 2027). 
• Research safety compliance retains constructing on NSPM-33. Expect common research-security reporting varieties, automated vetting and steady monitoring of federally funded analysis, and a funding prohibition for entities on the Section 1260H Chinese navy firm listing, which is very related for college and federal-contractor shoppers. 
• A refreshed Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) listing anchors what comes subsequent. The technique’s 14 CET classes (Appendix A) – together with AI/autonomy, biotechnology, quantum, semiconductors, and area – are the areas probably to see expanded CFIUS mandatory-filing triggers, export management protection, and FY2028 federal R&D funding precedence. 
• Related government orders to trace: EO 14265 (protection acquisition reform), EO 14369 (area acquisition reform), EO 14383 (America First Arms Transfer Strategy, incentivizing overseas capital allocation within the protection industrial base), and EO 14307 (drone export streamlining). 

What Companies Should Be Preparing for Now 

For firms concerned in cross-border capital allocation, the NSSTS indicators that nationwide safety evaluate could grow to be related to a broader vary of transactions and capital allocation constructions. Businesses in vital and rising know-how sectors ought to contemplate CFIUS threat earlier in transaction planning, together with whether or not a proposed capital allocation includes vital applied sciences, delicate U.S. companies, or probably high-risk greenfield exercise.  

U.S. firms looking for overseas capital must also conduct better diligence into potential traders, their possession and affiliations, and any connections to nations or entities of concern. At the identical time, firms with global operations ought to consider CFIUS alongside outbound capital allocation and export management necessities, because the technique suggests these authorities will more and more function as complementary instruments for shielding U.S. know-how and nationwide safety pursuits. 

Bottom Line 

The NSSTS is a roadmap, not a rulemaking – but it surely indicators the place CFIUS, BIS, and Treasury rulemaking is headed subsequent, notably for AI, quantum, biotechnology, semiconductors, and area. Clients lively in these vital know-how sectors ought to start assessing publicity now, notably round greenfield capital allocation constructions, outbound capital allocation involving China-linked entities, and analysis safety disclosure obligations. We are monitoring implementation carefully and are glad to debate how these developments apply to a particular transaction or compliance program. 

Contact Diaz Trade Law as we speak for help evaluating CFIUS threat and different global commerce due diligence. [email protected] | 305-456-3830 

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