Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the US government 15% of their revenues from semiconductor sales to China in exchange for export licenses, an unprecedented quid pro quo arrangement aimed at solidifying America’s AI business dominance while maintaining trade ties with China.

I called some CEOs yesterday to get their thoughts on Nvidia and AMD’s deal to give the U.S. government a 15% cut of AI chip sales to China to secure export licenses. Most were surprisingly sanguine about the unusual arrangement.

The Trump administration’s potential deal with Nvidia over its chip exports is rankling conservative China hawks, who see it as a bad move for American national security and want a more muscular strategy of economic statecraft against Beijing.