Chip giants Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the US government 15% of Chinese revenues as part of an “unprecedented” deal to secure export licences to China, the BBC has been told.The US had previously banned the sale of powerful chips used in areas like artificial intelligence (AI) to China under export controls usually related to national security concerns.Security experts, including some who served during President Donald Trump’s first term, recently wrote to the administration expressing “deep concern” that Nvidia’s H20 chip was “a potent accelerator” of China’s AI capabilities.Trump on Monday dismissed security concerns, saying the chip in question was “old”.Under the agreement, Nvidia will pay 15% of its revenues from H20 chip sales in China to the US government.AMD will also give 15% of revenue generated from sales of its MI308 chip in China to the Trump administration, which was first reported by the Financial Times.Nvidia told the BBC: “We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.”It added: “While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.” AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The deal sparked surprise and concern in the US, where critics said it raised security risks and questions about the Trump administration’s approach to dealing with private businesses.”You either have a national security problem or you don’t,” said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation.”If you have a 15% payment, it doesn’t somehow eliminate the national security issue,” she added.On social media, some investors called the arrangement a “shakedown”, while others compared the requirement to a tax on exports – which has long been considered illegal in the US. “Regardless of whether you think Nvidia should be able to sell H20s in China, charging a fee in exchange for relaxing national security export controls is a terrible precedent,” wrote Peter Harrell, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who formerly worked for the Biden administration.”In addition to the …
