Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldNvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15 per cent of the revenues from chip sales in China, as part of an unusual arrangement with the Trump administration to obtain export licences for the semiconductors.The two chipmakers agreed to the financial arrangement as a condition for obtaining export licences for the Chinese market that were granted last week, according to people familiar with the situation, including a US official.The US official said Nvidia agreed to share 15 per cent of the revenues from H20 chip sales in China and AMD would provide the same percentage from MI308 chip revenues. Two people familiar with the arrangement said the Trump administration had not yet determined how to use the money.The Financial Times reported that the commerce department started issuing H20 export licences on Friday, two days after Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang met President Donald Trump. The US official said the administration had also started issuing licences for AMD’s China chip.The quid pro quo arrangement is unprecedented. According to export control experts, no US company has ever agreed to pay a portion of their revenues to obtain export licences. But the deal fits a pattern in the Trump administration where the president urges companies to take measures, such as domestic investments, for example, to prevent the imposition of tariffs in an effort to bring in jobs and revenue to America.Nvidia did not deny that it had agreed to the arrangement. It said: “We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.”AMD also did not deny the agreement. “Our initial licence applications have been approved,” it said, adding that it “adhere[d] to all US export control laws and policies in our global business operations”. Bernstein analysts estimate that, based on Nvidia’s guidance before the controls kic