The Trump administration leveraged export controls to secure profit-sharing arrangements with AMD and NVIDIA for chip sales to China.
Posted by The Lawfare Podcast, Checked
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- 6 support1 context
- Said
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- Confidence
- 92%
The Lawfare PodcastOct 8, 2026
Multiple reliable sources, including AP, Reuters, The Hill, and a Congressional Research Service report, confirm that Nvidia and AMD agreed in August 2025 to give the U.S. government 15% of their China chip sales revenue in exchange for export licenses.
What was said
… And then we have these other projects, these efforts to get equity shares or profit sharing arrangements in major companies. Remember, the Trump administration leveraged the ability to issue export controls to secure profit sharing with the sale of chips from AMD and NVIDIA to China. That's pretty wild. Now, presumably, all those, under the Miscellaneous Receipts Act, all that money is supposed to go to the general Treasury. In theory, it's not sort of padding the pocket of particular programs. …
The Lawfare Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. AP reports Nvidia and AMD agreed to share 15% of revenues from China chip sales with the U.S. government as part of a deal to secure export licenses, confirmed by President Trump.[1][6]
Supports. Reuters and The Hill report the deal traded resumed exports of banned AI chips (H20, MI308) to China for a 15% government cut, and that the arrangement was struck after the administration had restricted those sales.[2][5]
Supports. A Congressional Research Service report states that BIS approved Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308 GPUs for sale in China under terms that the U.S. government would receive 15% of proceeds.[3]
Supports. Democratic Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi publicly condemned the arrangement as a misuse of export controls to generate revenue, confirming the export-license-for-revenue structure.[4]
Context. Politico reports the profit-sharing arrangement had not yet produced payments because the administration had not issued the regulations to codify it, and questions about its legality remain.[7]
Sources
7 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 1 tier 1, 1 not rated, 1 tier 2
- 1US will get a 15% cut of Nvidia and AMD chip sales to China under a new, unusual agreementapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Trump's unusual Nvidia deal raises new corporate and ...reuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3U.S. Export Controls and China: Advanced Semiconductorscongress.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 4Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi Condemns Reported Nvidia ...democrats-selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 5'Bizarre' Nvidia, AMD chip export deal with Trump raises ...thehill.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 6US will get a 15% cut of Nvidia and AMD chip sales to China ...ap.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7The White House wanted to make money from 2 chip companies ...politico.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
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