To obtain export licenses to China, Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay 15% of their revenue to the US government.

The Financial Times reported on August 11 that US chip companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have agreed to pay the US government 15% of their chip sales revenue in China in exchange for export licenses issued by the Trump administration.

US officials said Nvidia will share 15% of its H20 chip revenue in China, and AMD will give the same percentage of its MI308 artificial intelligence (AI) chip revenue to the US government. The report noted that this practice of demanding a portion of a company's revenue in exchange for export licenses is unprecedented.

US President Trump has resorted to an unprecedented new blackmail tactic regarding chip exports to China. The Financial Times reported on August 11 that US chip companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have agreed to pay the US government 15% of their chip sales revenue in China in exchange for export licenses issued by the Trump administration.

Sources familiar with the matter, including a US official, told the newspaper that the two companies agreed to this financial arrangement in exchange for US government export licenses to China.

The US official said Nvidia will share 15% of its H20 chip revenue from sales in China, and AMD will remit a similar percentage of its MI308 artificial intelligence (AI) chip revenue to the US government. Two people familiar with the matter said the Trump administration has not yet decided how to use the funds.

The Financial Times reported last week that the US Department of Commerce began issuing export licenses for the H20 chips on the 8th, just two days after Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump.

The anonymous US official also revealed that the Trump administration has also begun issuing chip export licenses to AMD.

The report noted that demanding a portion of a company's revenue in exchange for export licenses is unprecedented. Export control experts say that while such an arrangement has never been used before by the US government, it fits the Trump administration's pattern: the president requires companies to take specific actions, such as investing in the US, in exchange for tariff exemptions, thereby achieving his stated goal of bringing jobs and revenue to the US.

AMD did not respond to the report, but Nvidia did not appear to deny the existence of such an arrangement, stating, "We abide by the rules set by the US government for our participation in the global marketplace." The H20 chip is an AI accelerator designed specifically for the Chinese market, launched by Nvidia to comply with US government export restrictions. Analysts at US asset management firm Bernstein estimate that, based on Nvidia's sales figures before the April export controls, the company will sell approximately 1.5 million H20 chips in China in 2025, generating approximately $23 billion in revenue.

In April of this year, the Trump administration temporarily banned Nvidia from selling the H20 chip to China in an effort to curb China's continued progress in AI. In June, after Jensen Huang met with Trump at the White House, the administration softened its stance.

During a visit to China in July, Huang revealed that the US had allowed the company to resume selling the H20 chip to China.