NVIDIA and AMD will reportedly hand over 15% of revenue from their restricted AI GPU sales to China as part of a deal with the US government to secure export licenses, according to the Financial Times.
The arrangement stems from agreements made during the Trump administration, aiming to regulate the flow of advanced chips into China while still allowing limited sales.
The affected products include NVIDIA’s H20 GPUs and AMD’s MI308 AI accelerators-both designed to comply with US export rules. NVIDIA has already begun receiving license approvals, while AMD’s applications appear to be still under review. The Financial Times notes that details remain unclear on how Washington will allocate the funds, though they could be used to reduce the trade deficit or boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
China accounted for around 12.5% of NVIDIA’s sales before the restrictions, with the H20 alone generating $4.6 billion in its first quarter of availability. Despite the export curbs, NVIDIA’s 2025 stock performance has soared, regaining its position as the world’s most valuable company after rebounding from the DeepSeek selloff earlier in the year. The company estimates that the impact from H20 sales limits was $1 billion less than previously feared, thanks to strong global demand for AI hardware.
AMD, on the other hand, reported a significant drop in operating income last quarter, citing declining China sales as a major factor. Its CEO has confirmed that license approvals are still pending. If NVIDIA maintains current sales momentum, the US government could collect over $2 billion in 2025 from this 15% levy alone.
The export controls remain a focal point in US-China trade tensions. In addition to GPUs, high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips-critical for AI performance-are also restricted due to their reliance on American technology. If future AI GPUs require HBM, they would automatically fall under the same sales limitations, potentially tightening the export grip even further.