US gets 15% of chip sales to China

Trump gets 15% of China chip sales, The AI Report, August 10, 2025.

Our Report

An unnamed US official has revealed that US chipmakers, NVIDIA and AMD, have agreed to give the US government 15% of the revenue they make from selling their AI chips to China in return for export licences to China.

Key Points

• The revenue share applies to NVIDIA’s H20 chips (which NVIDIA modified specifically for the Chinese market, under Bidens’ previous export rules) and AMD’s advanced MI308 chips.
• This comes after the US previously banned the export of AI chips to China after security experts warned it could be "a potent accelerator" of China's AI capabilities, but last month, President Trump reversed this ban.
• This is the first time a US company has agreed to share revenue to secure export licences, but President Trump has previously encouraged US firms to “buy down” the tariff rates he imposes.

Relevance

Although securing export licences for China is good news for NVIDIA and AMD (NVIDIA generated $17B from China sales last year, representing 13% of total sales, and AMD made $6.2B, accounting for 24% of total revenue), China appears to be growing increasingly concerned about the security of NVIDIA chips, forcing NVIDIA to confirm that their chips had no “backdoor” security risks (which would allow remote access) and demanding it produce “convincing security proofs” to eliminate Chinese users’ worries and regain market trust.