National Korean Media: "NVIDIA signs rare agreement, pays 15% of chip sales revenue to the Trump administration"

¬ Conditions for H20 export license ... FT: Such agreements are unprecedented

On the 10th, according to a report by the UK's Financial Times (FT), the Trump administration issued export licenses for some products of domestic chip companies NVIDIA and AMD to China. However, both companies have signed agreements to pay 15% of their chip sales revenue to the U.S. government. The FT stated: "There has never been a precedent of U.S. companies agreeing to pay part of their income to the government in order to obtain an export license," and "this deal is consistent with the Trump administration's approach of using 'tariffs' as a lure to induce companies to invest in the U.S. and create jobs."

AMD did not respond to the FT's request for comment, while NVIDIA did not deny that it had agreed to the above-mentioned agreement, stating: "We comply with the rules set by the U.S. government for participating in the global market." In April, the Trump administration had banned NVIDIA from exporting H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, but after President Donald Trump met with NVIDIA's CEO Huang Renxun at the White House in June, he revoked the stance. On the 6th, Trump met with Huang Renxun at the White House and discussed the issue, and shortly after, on the 8th, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) began issuing export licenses. According to the FT report, as a price for allowing exports, the Trump administration may have required companies to "return" a portion of their revenue to the government. In 2022, after the Biden administration banned the export of the most advanced chips such as H100, NVIDIA was forced to reduce the performance of the H20 chip designed specifically for the Chinese market.

In the U.S.-China competition, whether it is the conservative or progressive camp, the major policy direction of the U.S. government is to control the export of chip equipment and technology, and to build a supply chain centered around allies and partners. However, the sudden shift of the Department of Commerce to allow the export of NVIDIA chips to China has attracted a lot of public criticism. Matthew Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor at the White House during Trump's first term, and more than 20 other diplomatic and security experts sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, opposing the issuance of the H20 export license. They expressed concerns: "H20 could become a powerful accelerator for China's cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI), and could also be used for military purposes." In response, NVIDIA firmly stated that this was "a wrong claim." NVIDIA argued that China is one of the company's largest markets, and without export restrictions, the revenue forecast for the July quarter would have been $8 billion higher.

Sources: Chosun Ilbo

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840127820969994/

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