According to numerous sources, including U.S. officials, giants in the space, Nvidia and AMD, have agreed to give 15% of what they make from sales of specific chips in China as a means to procure export licences. This arrangement covers Nvidia’s H20 and AMD’s MI308 chips, both of which are AI chips. Reports say that Nvidia got permission to sell the H20, just a few days after its CEO Jensen Huang met with U.S. President Donald Trump. AMD also got licences to sell its chips in China.
The U.S. administration has not yet decided what to do with the funds. This is a first for the U.S.; no company has ever had to pay a share of its revenue to secure export authorisation. Analysts estimate that Nvidia could sell somewhere around 1.5 million H20 units in China in 2025, and that would generate roughly $23 billion. Nvidia developed the H20 for China post the Biden-era restrictions on advanced AI chips. In April 2025, the Trump administration moved to ban its export, but reversed the decision shortly after in June after meeting with Huang.
Some security experts think that the H20 could help China’s military AI capabilities, but Nvidia disputes this. This revenue-sharing deal comes in the midst of U.S.–China trade negotiations, with Washington freezing new export controls to avoid tensions and Beijing pushing for relaxed restrictions on other advanced chip components.
