The agreement between the chipmakers and the U.S. government will allow Nvidia and AMD to obtain export licenses to resume sales to China.

Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. have agreed to pay 15% of their revenues from Chinese AI chip sales to the US government in an unusual, legally questionable deal that reflects the Trump administration’s willingness to soften export controls in exchange for financial payouts.

A Fragile Foothold in China Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) recently secured U.S. approval to resume sales of their lower-end AI chips, the H20 and MI308, respectively, to China,