The AI chip race narrative used to be about U.S. national security, but apparently now it’s about tariffs: Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the U.S. government 15% of the revenue they make from sales of high-end AI chips to China in exchange for licenses to sell to those chips in the country, the Financial Times reported, citing anonymous sources. According to the FT’s government source, Nvidia will share revenues from sales of its H20 AI chips in China, and AMD would share a cut of MI308 chip sales. The g ...

Core Points - Nvidia and AMD have agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales in China with the US government to obtain export licenses for their semiconductors [1][2][7] - The revenue share specifically applies to Nvidia's H20 chips and AMD's MI308 chips [1][7] - The US Commerce Department recently issued licenses to Nvidia for exporting H20 chips to China, reversing a previous ban [6] Group 1 - The revenue-sharing arrangement was a condition for obtaining export licenses for the Chinese market, which were granted last week [2] - Nvidia has not shipped H20 chips to China for several months but hopes that export control rules will allow for competition in China and globally [3][4] - The H20 chip was tailored specifically for the Chinese market to comply with the Biden-era AI chip export controls [6]