Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to resume sales of key AI chips to China could come with some big strings attached.
Both companies have agreed to pay 15% of their China chip revenues to the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses, the Financial Times reported yesterday, after the Trump administration tightened restrictions earlier this year citing national security concerns.
The Trump administration and AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Nvidia told Investopedia, “We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America’s AI tech stack can be the world’s standard if we race.”
Both chipmakers have take a significant hit from the Trump administration’s curbs, with AMD last week reporting an $800 million charge in the second quarter related to restrictions on the sale of its AI chips to China. Nvidia said in May that it expects to report an $8 billion hit from export restrictions when it releases its quarterly results later this month.
Shares of Nvidia and AMD were about 1% lower in premarket trading Monday.
Such a deal would mark an unusual shift in how American companies are expected to engage with the government and respond to trade policy changes.
Nvidia’s plans to resume sales to China came after a number of high-profile visits to the White House by CEO Jensen Huang, including one last week. President Trump also said last week that Apple (AAPL) and others with pledges to build in the U.S. could be exempt from new semiconductor tariffs, after CEO Tim Cook joined Trump at the White House to announce a $100 billion commitment to U.S. production.
Separately, Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan is is set to to meet with Trump at the White House today, after the president called for his resignation, The Wall Street Journal reported.