In one of the more unconventional deals in tech, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) have reportedly agreed to hand over 15% of profits from certain AI chip sales in China to the U.S. government in exchange for the export licenses they need.
For Nvidia, it’s about its H20 accelerator; for AMD, the MI308. Wedbush’s Dan Ives says it’s not just a regulatory loopholeit’s a green light for growth. Without it, he argues, Huawei could have pocketed a $15 billion-a-year AI chip jackpot, giving Beijing a major edge.
This, Ives notes, is President Trump threading the needle: keep national security priorities intact while making sure America’s AI heavyweights don’t lose ground. And right now, Wedbush sees the U.S. ahead of China in tech for the first time in three decadespowered by Nvidia, Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), AMD, and others.
China isn’t standing still, though. Companies like Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Xiaomi are moving fast to close the gap. But with trillions in AI-driven revenue up for grabs globallyand key markets like the Middle East building out their AI infrastructureWedbush thinks that 15% fee is a small price to pay for staying in the game.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.