Key Points
- Top tech companies are making unprecedented deals with the Trump administration to avoid tariffs.
- Nvidia and AMD agreed to give the U.S. government a 15% cut of their China revenue.
- Apple announced a new $600 billion investment in the U.S. in a move seen as a way to avoid tariffs.
- The White House’s “hands-on” approach is making some investors nervous about policy stability.
Top tech executives are making a series of unprecedented deals with President Donald Trump, scrambling to get relief from his aggressive trade policies. In just the past few days, chipmakers Nvidia and AMD agreed to give the U.S. government a 15% cut of their China revenues in exchange for permission to sell advanced chips there.
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a massive $600 billion investment in the U.S., a move widely seen as an attempt to stay out of the president’s crosshairs on tariffs.
Analysts say this flurry of deal-making shows just how desperate major companies are to find a way around the costly tariffs. “The flurry of deal-making is an effort to secure lighter treatment from tariffs,” one expert said, adding that big tech firms “can ill afford to fork out on millions of dollars in additional fees.”
But the nature of these deals has sparked intense debate. Some have called the Nvidia and AMD revenue-sharing agreement a “shakedown” or even an unconstitutional tax on exports.
A White House spokesperson admitted the legality and mechanics of the deal were “still being ironed out” and hinted that similar agreements could be coming for other companies.
While investors were initially relieved that Nvidia and AMD could keep selling to China, the “hands-on” approach from the White House is making many nervous. “As an investor, you’re worried because then, is this an arbitrary decision by the government? Does every president get to play kingmaker in terms of these deals?” asked one analyst.
The biggest concern is the lack of a stable policy, with rules that can flip from one week to the next.
