Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have reportedly reached a deal with President Donald Trump that allows them to sell their advanced computer chips to China, but they will have to give the US government 15 per cent of revenue generated from such sales in the country.
The deal hasn’t been officially announced as yet, but highly-placed government officials, requesting anonymity, confirmed that Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, met with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday and agreed to pay the unprecedented 15 per cent cut to the federal government.
The US government had halted sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China in April, but the company said last month that it would be allowed to resume sales.
The story was first broken by The Financial Times. Sources told Reuters that the Commerce Department began granting licenses for AI chip sales two days (Friday) after the Trump-Huang meeting.
AMD’s MI308 is also in the list of chips that can now be exported to China, after the Trump administration had banned its sales to the country.
The US official told Reuters that the Trump administration did not feel the sale of H20 and equivalent chips was compromising US national security.
An Nvidia spokesperson, without confirming the deal, said in a statement: “We follow rules the US 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.”
AMD and the US Department of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
China is a significant market for both companies. Nvidia generated US$17 billion in revenue from China in the fiscal year ending January 26, representing 13 per cent of total sales, while AMD reported US$6.2 billion in China revenue for 2024, accounting for 24 per cent of total revenue.
