The White House's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, says the 15% export tax that has been agreed with Nvidia and AMD for GPUs being exported to China could be expanded to "other companies". In the meantime, she said the Department of Commerce is working on the "legality" of it all.
As we reported a few days ago, Nvidia and AMD have joined together in an unprecedented trade agreement that will see them pay the US government 15% of revenue from their chip sales in China. According to CNBC, President Trump commented that, "I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release.’”
But now Leavitt has ramped up the jeopardy for other tech companies. "Right now it stands with these two companies. Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies,” she said according to CNBC.
She also revealed that the existing arrangement with Nvidia and AMD hasn't been finalised. "The legality of it, the mechanics of it, is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce, and I would defer you to them for any further details on how it will actually be implemented," Leavitt said.
It turns out there are actually rules regarding the US government's scope for charging fees for export licences. And experts warn that Trump's 15% deal represents uncharted territory at best.
That said, neither Nvidia nor AMD have indicated any discomfort whatsoever with the 15% cut Trump wants to take from their sales of GPUs to China. Nvidia has merely said that it follows, "rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.”
As for AMD, its CEO Lisa Su recently made it clear just how sanguine the company is about these kinds of measures. " They're a "fact of life," she said. Indeed, the impression is very much that Nvidia and AMD probably wouldn't be kicking up a fuss, even if thought the export fees aren't entirely legal.
Sure, they might win that court battle. But then maybe they wouldn't be awarded any export licences at all, which are ultimately in the Trump administration's gift. In other words, taking a 15% hit is probably a whole lot better than not being able to export to China at all. Especially with Trump hinting that he might let Nvidia sell its "super duper advanced" Blackwell GPUs in China.
As for which other companies could be hit with the 15% fee, several firms involved in chip production, including Synopsys, Cadence and Siemens have seen export restrictions applied and then recently lifted. So, they seem like prime candidates. Specialists like Tenstorrent, which is headed up by chip design legend Jim Keller and makes AI accelerators based on the RISC-V instruction set, could also be targets.
But, really, it's anyone's guess who could be hit or even if the previously announced 15% deal with Nvidia and AMD will even go into operation. What with Trump calling for the "immediate" resignation of Intel's CEO only to call out Lip Bu Tan's "success" as a business leader an "amazing story" a few days later, and tariffs fluctuating by the minute and often never materialising, you'd be brave to assume almost anything.
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