Latest news with #Chinese-specific
CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
White House says it's working out legality of Nvidia and AMD China chip deals
The Trump administration is still working out the details of its 15% export tax on Nvidia and AMD and could bring deals of this kind to more companies, the White House's Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. "Right now it stands with these two companies. Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies," said Leavitt, the White House's spokesperson. "The legality of it, the mechanics of it, is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce, and I would defer you to them for any further details on how it will actually be implemented," she continued. President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he had negotiated a deal with Nvidia in which the U.S. government approves export licenses for the China-specific H20 AI chip in exchange for a 15% cut of revenue. Advanced Micro Devices also got licenses approved in exchange for a proportion of its China sales, the White House confirmed. "I said, 'If I'm going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I'm giving you a release,'" Trump said Monday. "We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets," Nvidia said in a statement this week. Trump said the export licenses for AMD and Nvidia were a done deal. But lawyers and experts who follow trade have warned that Trump's deal may be complicated because of existing laws that regulate how the government can charge fees for export licenses. The Commerce Department didn't immediately return a request for comment. The H20 is Nvidia's Chinese-specific chip that is slowed down on purpose to comply with U.S. export relations. It's related to the H100 and H200 chips that are used in the U.S., and was introduced after the Biden administration implemented export controls on artificial intelligence chips in 2023. Earlier this year, Nvidia said that it was on track to sell more than $8 billion worth of H20 chips in a single quarter before the Trump administration in April said that it would require a license to export the chip. Trump signaled in July that he was likely to approve export licenses for the chip after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the White House. The U.S. regulates AI chips like those made by Nvidia for national security reasons, saying that they could be used by the Chinese government to leapfrog U.S. capabilities in AI, or they could be used by the Chinese military or linked groups. The Chinese government has been encouraging local companies in recent weeks to avoid using Nvidia's H20 chips for any government or national security-related work, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Trump says he asked for 20% cut from Nvidia, calls H20 an 'obsolete' chip
President Donald Trump on Monday said that he initially asked Nvidia for a 20% cut of the chipmaker's sales to China, but the number came down to 15% after CEO Jensen Huang negotiated with him. The comments came after news broke over the weekend that Nvidia agreed to pay the federal government a 15% cut in return for receiving export control licenses that will allow it to once again sell the H20 chip to China and Chinese companies. Nvidia's Huang visited Trump in the White House on Friday. "I said, 'listen, I want 20% if I'm going to approve this for you, for the country,'" Trump said in a press conference in Washington. Trump said that Nvidia's H20 is an "old chip that China already has" and is "obsolete." He compared the H20 chip to Nvidia's current fastest artificial intelligence chip, which is called Blackwell, and said that he wouldn't allow those to be sold to China without significant downgrades, such as a 30% to 50% reduction in performance. "The Blackwell is super-duper advanced. I wouldn't make a deal with that," Trump said, adding that it was possible to make a deal for a "somewhat enhanced in a negative way" version of Blackwell. "That's the latest and the greatest in the world. Nobody has it. They won't have it for five years," Trump said. One reason for the U.S. export controls is fear that providing advanced chips to China could allow the foreign power to leapfrog the U.S. in AI capabilities. Many have said that could pose a threat to the national security of the U.S. Trump said that China already has chips with some similar capabilities to the H20. Huang has said that it is better for U.S. national security if Chinese AI developers use U.S. technology, and that denying them access to Nvidia chips would actually encourage the Chinese chip industry to develop and catch up. "He's selling a essentially old chip," Trump said. "Huawei has a similar chip." The H20 is a Chinese-specific chip that has had its performance slowed down. It is related to Nvidia's H100 and H200 chips that are used in the U.S. The H20 was introduced after the Biden administration implemented export controls on AI chips in 2023. In April, the Trump administration said it would require a license to export the H20 chip, and in May, Huang said that "effectively closed" the market off to Nvidia. Huang said that Nvidia was expecting to sell about $8 billion in H20 chips in the July quarter before sales were stopped. "While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide," an Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC on Monday. Trump on Monday also said that Huang plans to visit him again to negotiate export licenses for the Blackwell chips. "I think he's coming to see me again about that," Trump said. A White House official confirmed to CNBC that AMD, the second-place AI chip maker, will also pay 15% to receive an export license for its China-focused AI chip, the Instinct MI308.
