NVIDIA and AMD will give the US government 15% of revenues from the sale of AI chips in China

You can always negotiate and buy it back. NVIDIA and AMD have agreed to a “highly unusual” deal with the US government to resume sales of previous generations of AI chips to Chinese companies. According to the Financial Times, the manufacturers will transfer 15% of the proceeds from the sale of these chips to the US federal budget.

These are the H20 models from NVIDIA and the MI308 from AMD — specially trimmed versions of flagship accelerators adapted to export restrictions. According to the publication’s sources, the US administration has not yet decided what exactly the funds will be used for.

The American official noted that the deal was part of the agreements that allowed “opening the gates” for limited supplies while maintaining control over strategic technologies.

Recall that two Chinese citizens were recently arrested in the US for smuggling NVIDIA’s latest AI chips. Smuggling of high-tech semiconductors remains a pressing problem for Washington: according to the Financial Times, after Donald Trump tightened restrictions in early 2025, NVIDIA chips worth more than $1 billion entered China.