Chipmakers Agree Revenue-Share Deal for Chinese Exports

In a tightly watched development, U.S. semiconductor titans Nvidia and AMD have struck a deal to regain limited export access to China in exchange for handing over 15% of their U.S.-based AI chip revenue from those sales. The agreement comes amid heightened export controls and was confirmed today via regulatory channels, illustrating how commercial strategy and geopolitics have become intertwined in high-tech exports. The arrangement follows pressure from U.S. regulatory agencies to control sensitive AI technology flows, but it also enabled manufacturers to maintain a presence in China’s critical AI market—albeit at a higher effective cost.

Investor reaction was swift: Nvidia’s shares dropped roughly 1% in premarket trading, and AMD lost over 2%. The response underscores the market’s sensitivity to geopolitical compliance costs and how evenly a domestic regulatory affair can disrupt global revenue assumptions. The deal’s structure sets a precedent—it could become a template for how tech firms manage export limitations going forward, balancing compliance costs with revenue retention strategies.

From a strategic viewpoint, the revenue-sharing deal forces companies and financial markets to reevaluate profitability models. Firms must now assess net versus gross revenue exposures in sanctioned geographies, and lawmakers may replicate the formula in other high-tech sectors. Long term, this arrangement may reshape investor expectations for tech earnings and signal that geopolitical safeguards are now a price of doing business at scale.