Some big AI chipmakers will pay the U.S. government a major cut of their sales to China.

I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Two American microchipmakers have agreed to give the U.S. government a cut of their sales in China.

Marketplaces Nancy Marshall-Genzor has the details on this unusual agreement.

Chipmakers, Nvidia, and AMD will be sending 15% of the revenues from selling computer

chips in China to the U.S. Treasury.

This was first reported by the Financial Times, which goes on to say the two companies

made the deal in order to obtain export licenses to sell in China, and the licenses were issued

shortly after the agreement. The licenses will be for chips, NVIDIA, and AMD designed specifically

for China. In a statement, Invidia just says it follows rules the U.S. government sets for

its participation in worldwide markets. AMD didn't respond to her request

for comment. The Trump administration initially said it would ban NVIDIA chip exports to China

in reverse course, but there are concerns the Chinese military will get a hold of these chips.

In a post on X, former Biden administration official Peter Harrell said the 15% deal would

also violate the Constitution, which forbids export taxes. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace.

With all of this, a social media account affiliated with China's state-run government-influenced

media claims NVIDIA's n20 chip is unsafe for

China, asserting it gives its U.S. makers backdoor access and could be shut down remotely.

NVIDIA says there is no backdoor, the China Post and casts other shade, saying the

NVIDIA model is bad for the environment and not all that technologically advanced.

In an acknowledgement, the economy may be weaker than we thought.

A Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said over the weekend that she expects three interest rate cuts during the rest of this year.

There are only three more interest rate meetings at the Fed left this year.

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