Trump floats Nvidia Blackwell China sales, talks 15% ‘little deal’ cut

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Little deal: US President Donald Trump said he may allow Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its Blackwell AI chip to China, cutting performance by 30-50%. At a White House press conference, he detailed an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD, saying he initially asked for 20% of revenue from sales of their less-advanced AI chips in China before agreeing to 15% at Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s request. Trump called the H20 arrangement “a little deal” and said a downgraded Blackwell would be like reduced-capability fighter jets sold abroad. The current export licences cover Nvidia’s H20 and AMD’s MI308 chips. An unnamed US official told Reuters the administration does not see such sales as a national security risk, but critics warned of security concerns, legal issues and precedent. The Financial Times reported some national security officials considered resigning over Trump’s recent signals to China.(Capital Brief)(White House)(FT)(Reuters)(Bloomberg)

2.

Tariff extension: Trump signed an executive order extending a pause in higher tariffs on Chinese imports for 90 days, moving the deadline to 9 November, according to the White House official. The truce, due to expire on 12 August, was agreed in May and reduced tariffs and eased export restrictions. The extension follows July talks in Stockholm and allows time for further negotiations and a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October. Separately, Trump posted on social media on Monday (Tuesday AEST) that gold imports will not face US tariffs. That came after a 31 July US Customs and Border Protection ruling that gold bars from Switzerland would be subject to his 39% reciprocal tariff on that country. The ruling caused confusion in bullion markets and sent gold futures to a record high before they fell 2.5% to USD3,404.70 an ounce after Trump’s announcement. (Reuters)(Bloomberg)(CNBC)(Capital Brief)

3.

Bogus allegations: Meta dismissed a whistleblower leak as “bogus”, alleging it scraped several prominent Australian news sites, but stopped short of ruling out the possibility that the publications were used to train its AI models. The purported leak accused Meta of targeting the ABC’s news site, along with News Corp’s news.com.au, the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian; Nine Entertainment’s Sydney Morning Herald, and Seven West Media’s 7news.com.au, to train its AI models. The list was published on 7 August by Drop Site News, a left-leaning Substack publication founded by former staff of the national security-focused site, The Intercept. The report contains a list of “roughly 100,000” web properties that were allegedly scraped to train Meta’s proprietary AI models. “This list is bogus and we have no idea where it came from. We’d have said that directly to DropSiteNews but they didn't contact us before they rushed out this incorrect story,” a Meta spokesperson told Capital Brief. (Capital Brief)

4.

Market moves: US stocks edged lower as investors awaited inflation data and reacted to President Trump extending the 90-day tariff truce with China and ruling out US duties on gold bars. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite all eased less than half a percentage point. Intel gained 3.6% as CEO Lip-Bu Tan was seen entering the White House to meet Trump after the president last week called for his resignation over China ties. Gold futures fell following last week’s spike, after Trump said gold imports will not face US tariffs, while soybean prices rose after he suggested China could quadruple US imports. Ford announced a USD2 billion ($3.1 billion) investment to produce a USD30,000 electric pickup in Kentucky from 2027. Nvidia and AMD were little changed after agreeing to give the US government a share of revenue from some China sales. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)(WSJ)

5.

Defence deals: Queensland’s Black Sky Industries secured millions from the Department of Defence as the Australian government pushes for more weaponry to be made onshore. Recently lodged documents show the company, which counts Go1’s Vu Tran as one of its co-founders, won a $2.6 million contract for military research and development in June. This comes just months after it received a $1 million grant to develop infrastructure for rocket fuel production. The deals mark strong momentum for the company less than a year after it restructured. Originally founded in 2018 by Blake Nikolic and Karl Hemphill as Black Sky Rockets, it was rebranded as Black Sky Industries last year, with Tran joining as co-founder. Black Sky Industries focuses on solid rocket motors, which propel guided weapons, certain drones and battlefield scanners. Unlike the liquid fuel used by companies like SpaceX, solid propellants are designed for single-use rockets. (Capital Brief)

6.

Economic reform: The Productivity Commission is encouraging the federal government to coordinate with state and territory counterparts to ensure new AI tools are developed specifically for Australian schools and made widely available to all students. The suggestion is one of many draft proposals in a new interim report from the PC focused on skills, training and schools. The PC is releasing five interim reports ahead of the federal government's upcoming August Economic Reform Roundtable. This latest report, focused on building a skilled and adaptable workforce, is the fourth to be released and focuses on reforms to secondary and post-secondary education and to occupational entry requirements. In terms of school student outcomes, the PC recommends the government invest in a single national platform that teachers can use to access lesson planning materials, and lead national efforts to ensure “equitable access” to educational technology and AI. (Capital Brief)

7.

First punch: Paramount acquired the US rights to TKO Group’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for seven years, commencing in 2026, in its first major deal since its USD8 billion ($12.3 billion) merger with Skydance. Paramount is paying an average of USD1.1 billion per year, totalling USD7.7 billion, for UFC’s offering of 13 marquee events and 30 “Fight Nights,” the companies said. The events will be distributed through Paramount’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, Paramount+, with a select number of events to be simulcast on Paramount’s broadcast network CBS. The companies said that as part of the agreement, UFC and Paramount will move away from UFC’s existing Pay-Per-View model in favour of making these premium events available at no additional cost to Paramount+’s US subscriber base. ESPN and Netflix had sequential exclusive windows to negotiate deals which lapsed, before Paramount, Amazon.com, YouTube, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Fox Corp. all inquired. (Paramount Skydance)(Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)

8.

Federal takeover: Trump placed Washington DC’s police department under federal control and deployed National Guard troops to combat “severe lawlessness” in the city. Trump placed Attorney General Pam Bondi in charge of the DC police and said he was “deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington DC” in order to “take our capital back” from what are “violent gangs”, “bloodthirsty criminals” and “caravans of mass youth.” The action comes despite statistics showing violent crime fell to a 30-year low in the city last year. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said that members of the Washington DC National Guard will be “flowing” into the capital over the coming week. Trump added he was embarrassed to travel to see Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday after having to talk about “how unsafe, how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was”. Meanwhile, California and the Trump administration began a trial over the President’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines in LA earlier this year. (WSJ)(White House)(Capital Brief)