Trump defends taking 15% cut of Nvidia, AMD chip sales to China
'No, this is an old chip that China already has,' Trump said Monday, referring to Nvidia's H20 processor, adding that 'China already has it in a different form, different name, but they have it.'
The president emphasized that America's most advanced chips remain off-limits to China, describing Nvidia's newest Blackwell processor as 'super, super advanced' technology that 'nobody has' and won't have 'for five years.'
4 President Donald Trump defended his controversial deal requiring Nvidia and AMD to share 15% of their China sales revenue with the US government.
AP
The two tech companies agreed to the deal under an arrangement to obtain export licenses for their semiconductors.
Trump on Monday painted himself as a tough negotiator who extracted payment for access to the Chinese market while protecting America's technological edge.
He described his negotiations with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as a back-and-forth over percentages.
Trump initially wanted 20% of the sales money, but Huang talked him down to 15%, according to the president.
'And he said, 'Will you make it 15?' So we negotiated a little deal,' Trump recounted.
The president repeatedly stressed that the H20 chips are essentially obsolete.
4 Trump initially wanted 20% of the sales money, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (pictured) talked him down to 15%, according to the president.
AFP via Getty Images
'It's one of those things. But it still has a market,' he explained, suggesting China could easily get similar technology elsewhere, including from their own company Huawei.
Its' Blackwell chip, meanwhile, delivers two-to-four times the performance of previous generations of graphics processing units (GPUs) with over 208 billion transistors and cutting-edge AI capabilities.
The US had previously blocked companies from selling certain chips to China, worried that advanced technology could help China compete with America in areas like artificial intelligence.
4 Nvidia's logo is seen displayed on the company's Blackwell GPU chip — an advanced processor that won't be sold to China, according to Trump.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Trump was adamant about keeping the best technology for America.
Regarding the advanced Blackwell chip, he said, 'I wouldn't make a deal with that, although it's possible I'd make a deal … 30% to 50% off of it.'
He compared the deal with Nvidia and AMD over its MI308 chips to how America sells fighter jets to other countries but keeps the best features for itself.
'We will sometimes sell fighter jets to a country and we'll give them 20% less than we have,' he explained.
AMD's stock price jumped more than 2% Monday, while Nvidia shares climbed modestly.
Investors figure that keeping 85% of the money from China sales beats not making any money, which is what these companies were looking at.
4 AMD, another chipmaker, will also share proceeds of its sales to China with the US government.
REUTERS
Trump framed the deal as putting America first, insisting the money goes to the country, not him personally.
'When I say I want 20 (percent), I want for the country. I only care about the country. I don't care about myself,' he said, defending against any suggestion of personal benefit.
China isn't thrilled about the arrangement. Their state-run newspaper called out America for using 'economic leverage' after originally claiming the export bans were about security.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have been questioning whether American chips might have secret 'backdoors' that could let someone spy on them – accusations Nvidia firmly denies.
'We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,' an Nvidia spokesperson told The Post.
'While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.'
The company warned that 'America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership.'
'America's AI tech stack can be the world's standard if we race,' the spokesperson added.
The Post has sought comment from AMD and the Chinese government.
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