U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he might allow Nvidia to sell a scaled-down version of its next-generation advanced GPU chip in China, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that China could harness U.

Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the US government 15% of their revenues from semiconductor sales to China in exchange for export licenses, an unprecedented quid pro quo arrangement aimed at solidifying America’s AI business dominance while maintaining trade ties with China.

The arrangement crafted by the Trump administration is “unusual,” analysts told CNBC, but underscores the president's transactional nature.