【By Observer Net, Wang Yi】On the issue of chip exports to China, US President Trump has once again come up with an unprecedented "extortion" tactic. According to a report by the Financial Times on August 11, US chip companies NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have agreed to pay 15% of their revenue from chip sales in China to the US government in exchange for export licenses issued by the Trump administration.

According to sources familiar with the matter, including a US official, these two companies have agreed to the financial arrangement to obtain export licenses from the US government.

The US official said that NVIDIA will "share" 15% of its revenue from H20 chips sold in China, and AMD will also pay 15% of the revenue from its MI308 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to the US government. Two sources said that the Trump administration has not yet decided how to use this money.

According to a report by the Financial Times last week, the US Department of Commerce had started issuing export licenses for H20 chips on the 8th, just two days after NVIDIA's president and CEO Huang Renxun met with Trump. The anonymous US official also revealed that the Trump administration has also begun issuing chip export licenses to AMD.

The report pointed out that this practice of demanding part of the company's income in exchange for export licenses is unprecedented. Export control experts said that although the US government has never had such an arrangement before, it fits the pattern of the Trump administration, which requires companies to take specific actions, such as investing in the US, to gain tariff exemptions, thus achieving his so-called goal of bringing jobs and fiscal revenue to the US.

AMD did not respond to the report, but NVIDIA seems not to have denied the existence of such an arrangement. The company responded, "We comply with the rules set by the US government for our participation in the global market."

The H20 chip is an AI accelerator designed specifically for the Chinese market by NVIDIA to comply with US government export restrictions. Bernstein analysts, an American asset management company, estimated that based on NVIDIA's sales data before the April export controls, the company would sell about 1.5 million H20 chips in China in 2025, generating approximately $23 billion in revenue.

In April, to curb China's continuous progress in AI, the Trump administration once banned NVIDIA from selling H20 chips to China. In June, after Huang Renxun visited the White House to meet with Trump, the Trump administration eased its stance. When Huang Renxun visited China in July, he disclosed to the outside world that the US had allowed the company to resume selling H20 chips to China.

Trump and Huang Renxun attend a press conference. Video screenshot

However, in the following weeks, the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) was almost paralyzed due to internal turmoil and did not issue any export licenses.

The delays at BIS caused frustration among US export companies, including NVIDIA. According to sources familiar with the matter, when Huang Renxun met with Trump on August 6, he raised this issue, and then BIS immediately began issuing licenses on the 8th.

"Although we have not shipped H20 for several months, we hope that the export control rules can allow the US to compete in the Chinese and global markets," NVIDIA stated on the 9th. "If the US AI technology stack fully competes, it could become the global standard."

NVIDIA has repeatedly warned that US restrictions on H20 chip exports will not only cost the company billions of dollars, but also be detrimental to US technology's participation in global competition.

AInvest, a US financial service platform, analyzed on the 9th that the recent regulatory shift in the US is a key turning point for NVIDIA's development. It not only readjusts NVIDIA's revenue structure, but also changes its position in the rapidly evolving AI competition landscape. After obtaining the export license, NVIDIA expects to clear 900,000 H20 inventory, which is crucial for NVIDIA, which suffered an $8 billion hit in its first quarter. Sales in the Chinese market accounted for 12.5% of the company's total revenue in the first quarter of this year.

However, risks still remain for NVIDIA. The report said that China's AI ecosystem is no longer a passive market for US semiconductors. Local competitors such as Huawei are actively innovating and becoming increasingly popular within Chinese AI research teams.

German tech media Heise also pointed out that China may no longer want NVIDIA's H20 chips. The chip, launched in 2023, is a reduced version of the H100, the strongest AI accelerator at the time; while the new Blackwell architecture has far superior performance and energy efficiency compared to Hopper.

Additionally, on July 31, the Cyberspace Administration of China held a meeting with NVIDIA, requiring it to explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding the security risks of backdoors in H20 computing chips sold to China.

Bloomberg of the United States analyzed on August 6 that the move by China is more about sending multiple signals to the US rather than targeting these American chips. It aims to remind domestic companies to be vigilant, promote the international community to carefully consider the US's "tracking" plan, and also hopes that Huang Renxun can exert influence on the White House to adjust related strategies.

Analysts said that the Chinese meeting with NVIDIA was more of a warning to its future products, aiming to show that "China is the buyer, but certainly not a blind purchaser."

"It is a natural choice for China to put NVIDIA on the negotiation table, either to obtain more reliable and secure supply commitments or to further promote domestic alternatives," said Tilly Zhang, a tech analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. "No matter the outcome, it won't be a loss for China."

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