Trump Blasts Nvidia Over US Cut of China Chip Sales
b>Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang remembers the “good old days” of PC gaming as the company builds AI infrastructure
President Donald Trump confirmed that semiconductor giant Nvidia will pay the United States 15 percent of its revenues from sales of certain artificial‑intelligence chips to China.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that Nvidia’s H20 chips are obsolete, despite being previously targeted for export restrictions. He justified the 15‑percent cut by stating, “If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release. I released them only from the H20.”
Why Nvidia can’t ship its most advanced chips to China
- Because Beijing could use them to enhance military capabilities.
- Nvidia developed the H20—a less powerful version of its AI processing units specifically for export to China.
- Export licensing requirements tightened in April, halting the plan.
Trump and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang meet at the White House
After the meeting, Nvidia agreed to give the federal government the revenue cut—a highly unusual arrangement in international tech trade, according to reports in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and New York Times.
A Nvidia spokesperson told AFP that, “While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.” He added, “America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America’s AI tech stack can be the world’s standard if we race.”
Investors bet on AI to transform the global economy
Last month Nvidia—the world’s most valuable company and a leading designer of high‑end AI chips—hit $4 trillion in market value for the first time ever.
Trade tensions between China and the United States
U.S. restricts which chips Nvidia can export to China on national‑security grounds. After Huang’s meeting with Trump, the Commerce Department began granting licenses for chip sales, according to media reports. Silicon Valley‑based AMD will also pay 15 percent of revenue on Chinese sales of its MI308 chips, previously barred from exporting to the country.
Trump administration’s tariffs and trade strategies
- 1 percent tariff on many semiconductor imports came into effect last week, with exceptions for tech companies that announce major investments in the United States.
- “It’s a political tariff in everything but name, brokered in the shadow of heightened U.S.–China tech tensions,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
