$TRUMP STRIKES CHIP DEAL WITH NVIDIA & AMD FOR CHINA SALES
Donald Trump says he initially demanded 20% of Nvidia’s China sales, but settled for 15% after CEO Jensen Huang met him at the White House. The agreement allows Nvidia to resume selling its China-specific H20 AI chip under new export control licenses.
Trump called the H20 “obsolete” compared to Nvidia’s cutting-edge Blackwell chip, which will remain banned unless performance is cut by 30%–50%. “The Blackwell is the latest and greatest… no one else will have it for at least five years,” Trump said.
Under similar terms, AMD will also pay 15% to export its Instinct MI308 chip to China. The export rules aim to block China from acquiring AI hardware powerful enough to surpass U.S. capabilities, while still letting American companies compete in the market.
Huang has argued that selling U.S. chips—even older models—is better for national security than forcing China to develop its own. Trump countered that China already has chips similar to the H20, pointing to Huawei’s designs.
