‘There’s nothing novel’ about Trump’s deal with Nvidia,AMD

CNBC’s Jim Cramer argued that President Donald Trump’s deal with semiconductor giants Nvidia and AMD isn’t necessarily unprecedented.

“There’s nothing novel at all about taking a 15% cut. It’s not like Trump’s collecting this money personally…that 15% goes straight to the Treasury,” he said. “To take a 15% cut on their Chinese sales is basically just another form of tariff, and we’ve gotten a ton of those lately, so why not this?”

The White House confirmed Monday that Nvidia and AMD agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of their revenue from sales to China. In return, the companies will receive licenses to sell certain chips in China, the Financial Times reported. The government had previously tried to hinder these exports, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned that the chip restrictions could lead the U.S. to miss out on a $50 billion AI market in China.

This arrangement comes as the Trump administration continues to upend global trade policy for Big Tech and the corporate world broadly. Last week, the president slapped a 100% tariff on semiconductors and chips — except for companies that are “building in the United States.”

Cramer said he doesn’t think the government’s policy is perfect, saying there’s “an element of pay-to-play here that’s definitely debatable.” However, he suggested that the move is one of the more “benign” ways that the federal government has become involved in business.

Cramer reflected on occasions when the government took stakes in companies. He mentioned the 1979 investment in Chrysler as the company was about to go bankrupt, as well as its move to bail out major banks during the Great Recession. In both situations, the federal government earned a profit.

The Trump Administration “intervened where it shouldn’t have, and then it changed course to do the right thing,” Cramer said. To him, the government’s decision to allow chip sales to China matters more than its mandate to receive 15% of the revenue.

“Wring your hands all you want, but this chip deal is good for the taxpayer and good for Nvidia and AMD,” he said. “If the chipmakers aren’t complaining, why should we?”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust owns shares of Nvidia.