Trump Puts Chip Industry on Edge With Arm-Twisting of Firms

He Has Threatened to Remove Grants, Warned of High Tariffs and Demanded Investments

- Tripp Mickle

SAN FRANCISCO — At an Oval Office meeting last week, US President Donald Trump dangled an offer to Mr. Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia. Mr. Trump said there would be a price for granting Nvidia the licenses it needed to sell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China.

"I want 20 percent," Mr. Trump said.

"Will you make it 15?" Mr. Huang asked.

Mr. Trump, who recounted the meeting during a press event on Aug. 11, agreed to the counterproposal. Two days later, the administration granted Nvidia the licenses it wanted, with the unorthodox payments expected to go to the government.

The negotiation was the most prominent example of Mr. Trump's blunt interventions in the global operations of the chip industry's most powerful companies.

He has threatened to take away government grants, restricted billions of dollars in sales, warned of high tariffs on chips made outside the US, demanded investments and urged one company, Intel, to fire its CEO.

In just eight months, Mr. Trump has made himself the biggest decision-maker for one of the world's most economically and strategically important industries, which makes key components for everything from giant AI systems to military weapons. And he has turned the careful planning of companies historically led by engineers into a game of insider politics.

The intrusion into private business underscores how far this administration has veered from the hands-off economic philosophy of former President Ronald Reagan, which guided the Republican Party for decades.