NVIDIA may give US government a cut of its profits to sell AI chips to China

The debate over whether AI chipmakers should be allowed to sell their products to China has taken an unusual turn. The US government has reportedly given NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) permission to make the sales but for one big catch: 15 percent of the sales. The news was first reported by The Financial Times, which cited multiple people familiar with the agreement.

In July, NVIDIA announced that the US government would approve export licenses to sell its H20 AI GPUs after blocking their sale in April. NVIDIA created these specific chips — which are less powerful than ones sold in the US — in response to restrictions on sales to China. It previously developed the A800 and H800 chips for the Chinese market, but those were also banned.

Now, NVIDIA and AMP were both reportedly granted export licenses for China last week, after agreeing to give the government ...