In a sharp turn from the rhetoric of outright bans, Washington has brokered a deal allowing two of its leading semiconductor firms to resume sales of customised AI chips to China ~ on the condition that 15 per cent of the resulting revenue flows directly to the US government.

These are not the flagship chips once deemed too advanced to cross the Pacific, but specially tailored, less powerful versions built to meet previous export restrictions. On paper, the arrangement offers a neat compromise: American firms reclaim access to one of their most important markets, China gains the technology it wants, and Washington collects a significant cut ~ potentially up to $2 billion ~ while keeping the most cutting-edge chips out of Beijing’s reach. Yet the deal’s novelty lies less in its economic arithmetic and more in the political precedent it sets.

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The US has long........

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