Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Nvidia and AMD have agreed to share 15% of revenue from chip sales with the US government, President Donald Trump confirmed at a press conference Monday.
The Trump administration stopped selling advanced computer chips to China over national security concerns in April, but Nvidia and AMD revealed in July that Washington could resume selling H20 and MI308 chips used in artificial intelligence development.
The president said he wanted 20% of the sale in exchange for obtaining an export license to sell “outdated” H20 chips to China, but praised Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for cutting him to 15%.
“So we negotiated a bit, and he essentially sells old chips,” Trump said.
Nvidia did not comment on the specific details of the contract or the nature of its Quid Pro Quo, but said it would comply with export rules set by the administration.
“We will follow the rules set by the US government to participate in the global market. We have not shipped H20 to China for months, but we hope that export control rules will compete with the US all over the world,” Nvidia wrote in a statement to the Associated Press. “The US cannot lose its telecommunications leadership over repeated 5G. The American AI technology stack becomes the global standard when we race.”
AMD did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Top Democrats on House Committee, which focused on competition with China, raised concerns over the reported agreement, calling it “a dangerous misuse of export controls that undermine our national security.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a ranking member of China’s House Selection Committee, said he would be calling for full transparency from the administration to ask for answers on the legal basis for the arrangement.
“Our export control regime should be based on true security considerations, rather than a creative taxation scheme disguised as national security policies,” he said. “Chip export controls don’t negotiate chips, nor are they casino chips. They shouldn’t gamble with national security to increase revenue.”
Derexscissor, a senior fellow and Chinese expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, questioned the constitutionality of the deal and warned against putting national security at risk for revenue.
“There is probably no precedent for this because export taxes are unconstitutional,” said Derek Scissor, a senior fellow and Chinese expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “They call it a fee, but 15% of sales revenue is about standard taxes. For this reason, I don’t think the ‘arrangement’ is durable.”
“If that continues, it has two possible meanings. First, there is an export tax that may have to consider famous companies and goods. Or, for tax purposes, such as changes in export control, it applies only to national security for national security.
In July, Nvidia argued that strict export controls, mainly chip sales, would cost the company $5.5 billion in additional charges. They argued that such restrictions have hampered US competition in the sector, one of the world’s largest technology markets, and warned that US export control could push other countries into Chinese AI technology.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC in July that updated sales of Nvidia’s chips in China were linked to a trade agreement between the two countries of rare earth magnets.
Limitations on the sale of advanced chips to China have been at the heart of AI races between the two biggest economic forces of the world, but such management is also controversial. Advocates argue that these restrictions are necessary to slow China down enough to allow businesses to maintain their lead. Opponents, meanwhile, say there are loopholes in export controls, which could still spur innovation. The emergence of China’s Deepseek AI chatbot in January raised particularly new concerns about how China will use advanced chips to develop its own AI capabilities.
Associated Press authors Josh Bauk and Sean Chen contributed to the report.
Original issue: August 11, 2025 11:30am EDT
