Nvidia and AMD have sharply escalated their lobbying operations at the White House, focusing on the export control framework that determines which AI chips can legally be sold to China. The stakes extend beyond the two companies: this licensing regime decides which hardware can legally power AI development in China, and how much of that market US suppliers are able to retain.

Nvidia's lobbying spending rises roughly fivefold

Nvidia spent nearly $3.5 million on lobbying in the first three quarters of 2025 alone, compared with $640,000 for the entirety of 2024 — roughly a fivefold increase in spending pace. The expenditure has been directed largely at softening export restrictions on chips such as H20 and H200.

AMD has pursued a parallel track, pushing for export access to its MI308 and MI325X chips while CEO Lisa Su conducted her own diplomatic outreach in China. Both companies have been negotiating for case-by-case export licenses rather than blanket bans — a distinction that leaves their China sales dependent on successive government approvals rather than a stable set of rules.

At one point, Nvidia agreed to share 15% of its China sales revenue with the US government starting in 2025 — a figure that later climbed in discussions to 25% for specific H200 shipments. That structure ties access to the Chinese market directly to payments to the US government — an unusual arrangement in export licensing, and one reason the outcome of these talks is being watched well beyond the chip industry.

Jensen Huang becomes a Washington fixture

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has engaged directly with the Trump administration, including meetings with President Trump, positioning himself as a bridge between the commercial interests of the chip industry and the administration's broader AI ambitions. By September 2026, Huang had reportedly become one of Trump's most influential advisors on AI policy — a level of direct corporate involvement in policymaking that underscores how central export licensing has become to the industry's fortunes.

Congressional pushback

Congressional opposition to Nvidia's export permits has intensified through 2026, with proposed legislation aimed at requiring greater oversight of chip export licenses and establishing priority access for US buyers before foreign sales are approved. Several of those legislative efforts have stalled, however, partly due to opposition from industry players and resistance within the White House itself.

Export controls have already cut deeply into Nvidia's share of China's advanced AI chip market, and competitors with fewer US ties have moved to fill that gap. The near-term markers are whether the stalled oversight bills advance, whether the reported 25% revenue-share terms for specific H200 shipments are finalized, and whether export licenses for the H20, H200, MI308, and MI325X are — together, they will help define the terms on which US chipmakers remain in the Chinese market.

Source: CryptoBriefing