United States: Chipmakers Nvidia and AMD forced to pay Donald Trump to sell in China

The tariffs imposed by Donald Trump amount to making American companies pay for importing products from abroad. Others will have to pay, but this time to export. In exchange for permission to resume exports of chips specialized in artificial intelligence to China, Nvidia and AMD have committed to returning 15% of the revenue generated to Washington.

Revealed by the American press, this unusual "deal" represents a major strategic shift. Amid growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing, the Biden administration had banned the export of the most powerful American-designed chips to China in 2022 for national security reasons. Upon returning to the White House, Donald Trump initially confirmed these restrictions. However, the American president agreed to a resumption of exports to China after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang promised to invest $500 billion in the United States. A shrewd strategist, the Taiwanese-born entrepreneur also argued that maintaining the embargo would primarily push Beijing to develop its own production capacity.

Only two chips are currently affected: Nvidia's H20 and its competitor AMD's MI308. Specially developed for the Chinese market, their performance has been revised downwards compared to their counterparts offered in the West. However, Donald Trump raised the possibility of a similar agreement on Monday with the latest generation of Blackwell chips, provided they are restricted. "I wanted 20%, but Jensen managed to negotiate 15%," the American president also declared.

According to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, this relaxation is also linked to ongoing negotiations with Beijing for the supply of rare earths essential to high-tech industries – a market largely dominated by China. The New York Times calculated that the agreement should bring in two billion dollars to the US Treasury… provided that sales are in line with forecasts. Considering the return of American chips as a poisoned chalice, Beijing has just advised Chinese companies against purchasing Nvidia's H2O chips, which it accuses of containing backdoors allowing US authorities to take control of them.

Originally a graphics chip manufacturer, Nvidia has seen its market explode with the demand for AI-driven computing power. Having become the world's largest market capitalization, the American company is now worth more than $4.4 trillion—equivalent to Germany's GDP.