White House says chips deals could perhaps expand to other companies

WASHINGTON: The White House said on Tuesday (August 12) that perhaps deals could be expanded to other chip companies after Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from sales to China of certain advanced chips.

AI Brief

Authorities summoned firms like Tencent and ByteDance to explain buying foreign AI chips over local ones.
China is accelerating development of domestic AI chips, urging tech firms to reduce dependence on US suppliers.
Nvidia's China sales face risk, and AMD chips may also be affected, as trade and tech tensions continue to escalate.

"It stands with these two companies, perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies. I think it's a creative idea and solution," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing.

Chinese authorities have summoned domestic companies including major internet firms Tencent and ByteDance over their purchases of Nvidia's H20 chips, asking them to explain their reasons and expressed concerns over information risks, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Chinese officials asked companies why they needed to buy Nvidia chips when they could purchase from domestic suppliers, the sources.

The scrutiny threatens a significant revenue stream for Nvidia, which generated $17 billion from China sales in its fiscal year ended January 26 - or 13% of total revenue.

China has accelerated work on domestic AI chip alternatives, with companies, such as Huawei developing processors that rival the H20's performance, and Beijing urging the technology sector to become more self-sufficient.

China's renewed guidance on avoiding chips also affects AI accelerators from AMD, Bloomberg also reported. It was not clear, however, whether any notices from Chinese authorities specifically mentioned AMD's MI308 chip.

AMD did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.