Under the financial agreement, the companies will give the U.S. government a portion of their sales as a prerequisite to obtaining export licenses for China, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter in public.
Nvidia issued a statement after the Financial Times first reported the arrangement Sunday.
“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,” said a spokesperson for Nvidia, referring to the company’s sought-after H20 AI chips.
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In April, the Trump administration halted H20 chip sales to China, citing security risks, but announced a reversal of the decision in July shortly ahead of another round of trade talks with Beijing. The H20 had been Nvidia’s last AI chip allowed to be sold to China after the Biden administration clamped down on such sales starting in 2022.
Even without the revenue-sharing provision, President Donald Trump’s decision to ease the chip-sale restrictions on Nvidia was controversial, with officials from both parties expressing concern that the flip-flopping policy would erode international trust in U.S. export controls.
The latest deal quickly drew criticism from some scholars who said it may violate the Constitution’s prohibition on taxes on exports.
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“Export controls are in place to protect national security, not raise revenue for the government,” Padilla said. “This arrangement seems like bribery or blackmail, or both.’’
Yeah its bribery. It will all go directly to his golf fund. Its still weird to me that the president can stop a company from exporting goods but whatever I guess fascism.
Yeah its bribery. It will all go directly to his golf fund.
Its still weird to me that the president can stop a company from exporting goods but whatever I guess fascism.
That seems kind of hyperbolic. Trump isn’t sending US government revenue to his personal accounts yet, I don’t think? He does seem to like to increase government revenue by shaking down...
That seems kind of hyperbolic. Trump isn’t sending US government revenue to his personal accounts yet, I don’t think? He does seem to like to increase government revenue by shaking down businesses, though.
Trump handles direct bribery by selling meme coins. Or, maybe he sues a company for libel and they settle out of court.
In the case of Trump, the leisure travel is a lot more frequent, and a lot of the money on leisure and on business travel is spent at businesses he owns - arranging Secret Service accommodation at...
I also think @Cycloneblaze is absolutely right about Trump taking a Putin-style view of the state’s money as an extension of his own. Spending like the birthday military parade or the new White House ballroom might technically be official business (although I bet both funnel a decent amount back to his companies too), but they’re spending to benefit Trump the man - primarily his ego, which is kinda the only thing any non-philanthropic spending is ever for past about a billion - not to benefit the US or even the office of the president.
[Edit] There’s things like that plane the Qataris bribed him with too: refit cost estimates there are somewhere in the $800m range (twice the value of the plane itself - or three times if you consider the opportunity cost of not selling the plane instead), paid by the government, and they’re openly saying that’s going to Trump himself via the thin shell of his presidential library.
[Edit 2] A bit late now, but something just struck me: the guy was literally found to be illegally using his charity’s money for personal gain. Of course he sees organisational money as his own because he runs the organisation. And now that organisation is the US federal government.
I think they’ve managed to obfuscate where federal money goes to a degree that he might be doing that and we’d never know. But, I haven’t spent more than like an hour tracking down federal...
I think they’ve managed to obfuscate where federal money goes to a degree that he might be doing that and we’d never know.
But, I haven’t spent more than like an hour tracking down federal spending data, here
It seems to me another example of how Trump views the US government - in ways the entire state, not just the presidency - as an extension of his enterprise; as personally his. If he felt some...
It seems to me another example of how Trump views the US government - in ways the entire state, not just the presidency - as an extension of his enterprise; as personally his. If he felt some barrier to the spoils of deals like this accumulating to him rather than the state, he probably wouldn't arrange it this way, he'd try to get paid in crypto or something.
It's not bribery, not in the sense of "Trump gets money out of this" (at least directly). It's business making the concessions they have to in order to access a huge market demand in China via an...
It's not bribery, not in the sense of "Trump gets money out of this" (at least directly). It's business making the concessions they have to in order to access a huge market demand in China via an appeal to Trump's ego as "the deal maker".
There's a really interesting breakdown of how this happened (the reversal on banning H20 exports) from the NYT Daily podcast (older episodes are behind a paywall, but this YT link is still freely available) The CEO of Nvidia has been largely absent from politics, noticeably so when so many other of the most powerful tech CEOs went to the White House in Jan to bend the knee. Only now is he making moves to work with the Trump admin, and it seems to be a very focused effort with the very specific goal of keeping access to China open so they can sell more AI chips.
It wouldn’t be if he did actually just talk to the administration and convince them of the philosophy that made Google a tech giant, but thats not what happened. 15% of sales is a bribe. They made...
It wouldn’t be if he did actually just talk to the administration and convince them of the philosophy that made Google a tech giant, but thats not what happened.
15% of sales is a bribe. They made Nvidia bribe them.
This sounds like a thing the executive does not have authority to institute: making private policy for particular named entities, unilaterally. Is this a tax? If so, under what authority? If not,...
This sounds like a thing the executive does not have authority to institute: making private policy for particular named entities, unilaterally.
Is this a tax? If so, under what authority? If not, what possible authority could there be to institute this system?
It sounds like these companies are perhaps misappropriation funds that legally their shareholders are entitled to the benefit of.
From the article:
…
…
Yeah its bribery. It will all go directly to his golf fund.
Its still weird to me that the president can stop a company from exporting goods but whatever I guess fascism.
That seems kind of hyperbolic. Trump isn’t sending US government revenue to his personal accounts yet, I don’t think? He does seem to like to increase government revenue by shaking down businesses, though.
Trump handles direct bribery by selling meme coins. Or, maybe he sues a company for libel and they settle out of court.
Who pays for his golfing trips on his golfing courses, (reportedly hundrends of millions per year) I wonder.
Yes, whenever the president travels, it's very expensive, and the government pays for it.
In the case of Trump, the leisure travel is a lot more frequent, and a lot of the money on leisure and on business travel is spent at businesses he owns - arranging Secret Service accommodation at his own hotels and billing it at a 300% markup, to take one example among many.
I also think @Cycloneblaze is absolutely right about Trump taking a Putin-style view of the state’s money as an extension of his own. Spending like the birthday military parade or the new White House ballroom might technically be official business (although I bet both funnel a decent amount back to his companies too), but they’re spending to benefit Trump the man - primarily his ego, which is kinda the only thing any non-philanthropic spending is ever for past about a billion - not to benefit the US or even the office of the president.
[Edit] There’s things like that plane the Qataris bribed him with too: refit cost estimates there are somewhere in the $800m range (twice the value of the plane itself - or three times if you consider the opportunity cost of not selling the plane instead), paid by the government, and they’re openly saying that’s going to Trump himself via the thin shell of his presidential library.
[Edit 2] A bit late now, but something just struck me: the guy was literally found to be illegally using his charity’s money for personal gain. Of course he sees organisational money as his own because he runs the organisation. And now that organisation is the US federal government.
I think they’ve managed to obfuscate where federal money goes to a degree that he might be doing that and we’d never know.
But, I haven’t spent more than like an hour tracking down federal spending data, here
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/
It seems to me another example of how Trump views the US government - in ways the entire state, not just the presidency - as an extension of his enterprise; as personally his. If he felt some barrier to the spoils of deals like this accumulating to him rather than the state, he probably wouldn't arrange it this way, he'd try to get paid in crypto or something.
It's not bribery, not in the sense of "Trump gets money out of this" (at least directly). It's business making the concessions they have to in order to access a huge market demand in China via an appeal to Trump's ego as "the deal maker".
There's a really interesting breakdown of how this happened (the reversal on banning H20 exports) from the NYT Daily podcast (older episodes are behind a paywall, but this YT link is still freely available) The CEO of Nvidia has been largely absent from politics, noticeably so when so many other of the most powerful tech CEOs went to the White House in Jan to bend the knee. Only now is he making moves to work with the Trump admin, and it seems to be a very focused effort with the very specific goal of keeping access to China open so they can sell more AI chips.
It wouldn’t be if he did actually just talk to the administration and convince them of the philosophy that made Google a tech giant, but thats not what happened.
15% of sales is a bribe. They made Nvidia bribe them.
It's certainly a payoff of sorts, but the word "bribe" isn't normally used when the government gets the money.
Well, thankfully the government is turning into a gang of goons, so the term fits again I suppose?
This sounds like a thing the executive does not have authority to institute: making private policy for particular named entities, unilaterally.
Is this a tax? If so, under what authority? If not, what possible authority could there be to institute this system?
It sounds like these companies are perhaps misappropriation funds that legally their shareholders are entitled to the benefit of.