Some Democrats are troubled by President Donald Trump’s recent deal to allow two tech companies to sell artificial intelligence chips to China as long as they provide the U.S. government some of the revenue.
“I certainly have concerns about what we might call linkage, that is linking revenue to the Treasury to national security decisions,” Rep. Sam Liccardo, whose district contains portions of SIlicon Valley, told NOTUS in a phone interview. “Because you wouldn’t want to have compromises made for the purposes of revenue.”
Trump signed a deal Monday with companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices that requires them to pay the U.S. government 15% of the revenue they receive from chip sales to China, and suggested he’d consider similar arrangements with other companies that create chips powering artificial intelligence.