Nvidia, AMD to pay U.S. government 15% of China AI chip sales in an unusual export agreement

U.S. chipmakers Nvidia and AMD will pay the U.S. government 15% of revenue generated by sales of their AI chips in China, a White House official confirmed to CBS News. 

The Financial Times on Sunday reported that the agreement between the tech giants and the U.S. government was reached as a condition for granting export licenses for China, which were provided last week. A U.S. official confirmed the "broad strokes" of the report to CBS News.

The arrangement, with companies providing a stream of revenue in exchange for export licenses, is highly unusual as corporations typically do not pay the federal government a share of revenue from their export sales. Export licenses also do not carry any fees, according to shipping giant Maersk.

In a Monday press conference, President Trump described the agreement with Nvidia as a deal that would benefit the nation. He described meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to discuss the terms of agreeing to the export license; Mr. Trump didn't mention AMD in his comments.

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