U.S. government imposes fee on Nvidia, AMD exports to China

Driving the news: The two chip companies agreed to the fee structure last week, the Financial Times first reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

• It was not immediately clear how the government would deploy the presumed billions of dollars in fees collected.
• The deal applies specifically to Nvidia's H20 chip and AMD's MI308, both crucial to AI applications.

For the record: "We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide," Nvidia said in a statement in response to the FT report.

• AMD did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on Sunday evening.

What to watch: Just how much the deal ends up being worth.

• Chinese customers are expected to rush in to buy Nvidia H20s in the face of pent-up demand. The company last month reportedly ordered hundreds of thousands more chips from its manufacturer TSMC to keep up with all that appetite.
• The company has said being blocked from selling the chip to China cost it $4.5 billion in one quarter alone.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that a Trump administration official has confirmed the levy action.